


Trust in Destiny

by icedcoffeebro



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe – Heist, M/M, Single Parent Sonny Carisi, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-06-02 10:37:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 31,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19439740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedcoffeebro/pseuds/icedcoffeebro
Summary: Rafael has been planning this heist all his life. Anticipating every possible outcome.But he never imagined he'd fall for the man in charge of the investigation: Dominick Carisi Jr, a distressed single father.—————Or La Casa de Papel AU.





	1. Uno

**Author's Note:**

  * For [soul_writerr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/soul_writerr/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAA! Hi this fic is something I've been working on for MONTHS and for it to finally be published is crazy??? This is based on La Casa de Papel AKA Money Heist (streamable on Netflix!) and if you don't know the premise of the show... hoo boy. You're here for a ride! Some stuff will be a bit OOC given the nature of this AU. I'll update every other day!
> 
> I dedicate this work to Kat bc wo her this wouldn't exist. She's the father to this work <3
> 
> Chapter 1 Additional Warnings: Domestic Abuse is mentioned.

_Dominick_

Phone rings.

One

Two

Three times 

“Good afternoon” a distorted voice answers.

_The Royal Mint of Spain has been hijacked by a select group of criminals. The police know nothing about them_

“This is Dominick Carisi Jr. I’m the inspector in charge of the heist. Who am I talking to?”

_Dominick was just hanging out with his sister and daughter when he got the call, there’s dozens of hostages._

“The robber in charge of the attack. Listen,” the voice distortion makes the voice sound metallic, fake. Carisi hates it. “you’re going to ask me what I want, right? Well, I want someone who can speak directly to me, who won’t have to check with superiors constantly, okay?”

_The robbers came out with bags filled with money, and just let it fly away. Nobody is sure what their endgame is._

“Well, that could only be the prime minister. But he’s busy running the country, so…” Sonny sighs, “You get me.”

_Dominick is the damn best at this. That’s why he was chosen to deal with this case._

The man at the end of the line laughs.

_These are professionals. They dismantled the entire security system of what’s supposed to be the best bank in Spain. The police know they were able to crack the vault, and get money out in bags. But what’s their end goal? They let money out to fly… As a statement?_

“Now, anything else you want?” 

_A tent has been set a few meters away from the Mint, ready to monitor anything that goes on inside, full of tech specialists, and Dominick, along with the National Security Colonel._

“What are you wearing?”

“Excuse me?” Carisi replies immediately.

There’s a pause. Everyone in the tent looks at Carisi, he bites his lower lip. 

Carisi turns to face the tech unit, “We can’t fix his voice,” he faces away, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 

“What clothes do you have on?”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Because, I think we need to get to know each other, and clothes say a lot about us,”

Sonny nods, biting his lip, “Look, I’m okay with telling you, but I feel I should let you know I’m in a tent with a whole team of specialists listening, and you’re on speaker,” he faces his co-worker. She’s breathing heavily.

“Okay, hello to everyone in the tent.”

Carisi’s co-inspector gets close to the mic, “Hi, I’m Rita, Deputy Inspector.”

“Hi Rita, you can call me Fiscal, everyone does.”

Carisi snorts, “You studied law?”

“Inspector, you haven’t even told me what you’re wearing. Why should I reveal that information to you?”

Carisi sighs, is this man for real? “Polka dot button up with dark jeans. Okay?” 

“Well then, I studied law indeed,” he takes a deep breath, audible amongst the modifier, “Isn’t it nice to talk like normal humans?” Through the distortion, Carisi could swear he’s smirking. 

“We,” Carisi emphasizes, “Are not ‘talking’, and this,” He menacingly puts his hands on the desk, even when the man at the end of the line can’t see him. He needs to feel in control. That’s the key, “Is not normal.” 

The voice laughs. 

“Now, can you take off that dreadful voice modifier?” Sonny takes a leap of faith with this one, he knows this won’t happen. But he just wants this over with. 

“Inspector,” The voice is stern. “I need to keep my identity private, in case you end up giving us a helicopter so we escape to Brazil,”

“That’s what you want?” Dominick scoffs, “A helicopter?”

“More than that, I want time.”

“Then free the hostages.”

_Amongst the hostages, there are all the employees of the Mint, whoever had unfortunately been visiting in the moment the heist started, and a group of high schoolers._

The voice laughs again, “I’ll think about it.”

The man on the other end hangs up, and Dominick sighs. He assumes the man is inside the Mint, but with the skill level these criminals have, he can’t be sure. 

“Do not get inside that building. I want it completely secured, no phone signal can enter the perimeter, we need to intervene every single signal off the Mint. And we don’t grant them any request.” Carisi announces with a loud voice.

“That’s not your call to make,” Colonel Prieto says. “Intelligence thinks we need to intervene.”

“Oh? And what is the fucking Intelligence doing here?” Dominick uses his great height to his advantage, provoking the colonel to step back. Intimidating him before he does it to him. “You want to kill them all?”

“I just don’t think you’re handling this with the right approach,” The man shrugs.

“I’m the lead inspector here,” Dominick begins walking away, ”And you’ll respect my authority.” 

“Is that what you told your wife?” the colonel says.

Carisi freezes at the comment. 

“Yeah, we know you filed charges for domestic violence against your wife.”

Dominick turns, the whole tent is quite, he stares up and down to the colonel, “And? Why does Intelligence need to know that?”

“I’m concerned about the fact that a man who let himself be beaten up by his wife is now in charge of such a high stakes operation, is all.” 

Dominick laughs, looking down at the colonel, he licks his lips, puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head, “I didn’t let her do anything to me, I assume you know how domestic abuse works? She’s a cop, but I’m guessing you know that? Since Intelligence is so interested in something that’s only a judge’s business?” Carisi says, everyone still hearing.

“I have a feeling your mental state over being... abused by your wife isn’t the best.” the colonel says, “Someone else would be better for this job.”

Dominick bites his lip, smiles and nods, “I’m the damn best at this, that’s why they called me,” he continues walking away, “so follow my fucking orders.” 

He walks away, breathing heavily. He puts his face on his hand. Being mocked about the worst experience of his life by a colonel isn’t how he expected this to turn out. He lets the cold Madrid air hit him. 

He feels overwhelmed, wants to be left alone for at least two minutes. He takes a deep breath and starts fidgeting with his skin, pinching it to calm down. He closes his eyes and prepares to let go of his stress.

But then he hears something in the distance.

He turns to look, and there’s several armored vehicles entering the area. He shakes his head. He didn’t authorize this, and he’s not going to be mocked by Intelligence when he’s the one in charge.

He enters the tent, “Someone better have a good fucking explanation on why there’s armed vehicles entering when I did not fucking authorize them.”

Colonel Prieto faces him, “Orders from above.” he speaks calmly, but he’s clearly distraught, “We’re going in, with everything we have,”

“Why? You want minors to die?” He once again works his height to his advantage, looking down at the colonel. 

“There’s a first priority person inside.”

Carisi scoffs, “What does that mean?”

“Alison Parker,” Carisi shakes his head, signaling he has no idea who he’s talking about, “daughter of the British ambassador. Imagine a hostage situation in Spain handled by the UK, is that what you want?”

The colonel’s tone makes Carisi wince a little, but he stands his ground, fuming with anger at the way this is working out. He heads out.

As he’s walking away, he hears the colonel, “We’re going in, whether you agree or not.”

Carisi continues walking away, “Terrible idea,” he mutters under his breath. There’s nothing he can do to stop this and this provokes him a great deal of impotence. 

“Dominick,” Rita says, he sits down next to her. 

Carisi closes his eyes, “This will end badly.” he rubs his temples. 

The armed forces are canvassing the area, and Dominick dreads with every bone in his body how this is turning out, when it could be a victimless situation, “Inspector,” one of the tech guys says, urging, “there’s cellular signal coming from inside… Alison Parker’s phone.”

Dominick stands up and heads towards the other side of the tent, their local news channel is on, and they hear it from there and the interveners. This is fucking awful.

“I’m a hostage, Alison Parker, daughter of the UK ambassador… The kidnappers have us all dressed up as them, with masks and all. We don’t know who’s who. Don’t come in.”  
Dominick nods as the colonel calls the special forces off. He grabs his coat and heads out, Prieto follows him, so Dominick turns to face him, “Finish this, I’m done here.” and he walks away.

——————

**Rafael**

He looks across the bar, to the inspector sitting in the bar stool.

All according to plan. 

He sits down next to him. 

“Shit.” the inspector says, looking at his phone, “Do you have a charger?” he asks the bartender. 

“No, sorry,” the bartender says. Sonny curses under his breath. 

“Do you want to use my phone?” Rafael asks the inspector. 

The inspector’s face glows at this, “Really?” Rafael nods and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, “Thank you! I just need to call my sister and boss.” he gives him a full smile, Rafael didn’t expect him to be this way, he didn’t expect him to beam. Had he misjudged who Dominick Carisi Jr. was? 

“Take your time,” Rafael says, and he watches how the inspector types away on his phone.

Rafael bites his lip. He needs to remember his own set of rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! Tell me what u think is going on or how you feel!  
> Comment and leave kudos!!!  
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	2. Dos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Discussions of a (fictional) nerve disease, which consists of hyperrealistic painful hallucinations and seizures. It's from Dirk Gently. Also, excessive use of force by law inforcement. And there's guns.

“Hi? Bella? It’s Sonny, it’s...” he checks his wristwatch, “6 am and I just got finished. I’m coming home.” The inspector says into his phone. 

He hangs up, then he calls a different number. “Superintendent Sánchez. This is Dominick Carisi Jr., and quite frankly, if you’re gonna have Intelligence up my ass, then I want none of it. I quit.”

He hands the phone back to Rafael, thanking him once again, and heads out, leaving two euros for his coffee. 

When he’s about to head out, Rafael calls him, “Excuse me but…” he points to the TV, where the inspector can be seen outside of the mint. Clearly in distress, “You’re working that?”

Dominick stares at him, squinting his eyes, and continues opening the door.

“In situations like that, is the point to buy time?”

To this, Dominick tilts his head, “Yeah, pretty much,” he gives a weak smile to Rafael and heads out. 

From the TV, a reporter can be heard talking about the case, mentioning there’s 67 hostages, Rafael sips his coffee as the news play on. Calm as he can be.

——————

**5 months prior**

_Robber in charge: Olivia Benson. Code name: Paris. 27 successful heists. Rafael’s right hand._

Rafael states at the window drinking his coffee. The heist planning had just begun. What he had always dreamed of was about to become a reality. 

“Fiscal?” Paris says, walking into the room and planting herself next to him, “How are you feeling?”

He takes a deep breath, “This could change everything,”

“I know,” Liv reaches for his shoulder and gently rubs it, “That’s why you called me,”

“You’re a mastermind for robberies,” he faces her, “But you’ve never killed anyone, and you’re crucial so this operation goes without fail,”

Liv looks at the ground, “I can’t promise you it’ll be perfect,” she says, “But I can assure you there won’t be any hostage casualties,”

“You’ll take care of them,” Rafael says, not looking at her, “The hostages and robbers, right?”

“That’s what I’m here for,” she says, “You’ve given me a new purpose, Fiscal, and I won’t let you down,” she stares at the sunset “whatever it takes.”

——————

Dominick gets home at 7 am, as he opens the door, he lets out a sigh. His sister is by the breakfast table, holding a cup of tea, absent staring.

“Hi Bells,” Dominick plants a kiss on the top of her head, he tosses a bag of medicine at the table, “I brought you your medicine,”

Bella gives him a weak smile, grabbing the med bottle and popping it open and fidgeting with it, staying quiet.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t get them to you earlier, I was stuck out on the case. But I’m out of it, Bella,” he runs a hand through her hair, “Okay?” he smiles at her. She’s barely looking at him, which is what happens when she doesn’t take her meds, even if it’s only for a day. 

“Alessa is in your bed,” Bella says, “I know you don’t like it when she sleeps in your bed, but she missed you,”

Dominick nods, “It’s okay, Bella,” she pops the pills into her mouth and drinks her tea, swallowing them. “No hallucinations?”

Bella shakes her head, “A month without them,” she smiles, “these pills seem to be working,” he gently rubs her cheek.

“I’m going to bed,” he says, “or else I’ll develop a killer headache,”

Bella throws daggers at him with her eyes, “I know, I know, I don’t know what that feels like on Pararibulitis, sorry,” he walks off.

Dominick took into protecting his little sister when she got diagnosed. It was no surprise, since the illness runs in the family. He’d visit her every other day, checking in on her and bringing her her medicine. She’d see how Sonny would come bruised and bloodied up, and brush it off by claiming it was an altercation with a suspect. 

Until he finally admitted it was his wife’s doing. And Bella urged him to leave her. To report it.

After a while, he did, but he knew nobody took a battered man seriously. And it sucked even more when his wife was in the police force as well.  
As he looks at his daughter sleeping peacefully, he thanks God he got custody. Alessa deserves to be happy. 

He gets under the covers and sleeps listening to his daughter’s steady breathing, pondering if resigning was the best choice he could’ve made.

——————

He wakes up hours later to a call from his boss.

“Hello?” he says, rubbing off the sleep off his eyes.

“Carisi,” the superintendent begins, “What was that call?”

He sighs, “I’m sorry, I—“

“This is bigger than either one of us, Carisi, and if it’s not you who handles this, this will be a massacre,”

“I know, I know,”

“I don’t think you do,” the superintendent takes a sharp breath, “You’re the only person I know who can solve this without violence,”

“I’m on my way.”

“Good,” Sánchez hangs up. 

Dominick takes a shower and in less than an hour, he’s heading back to the mint.

——————

When he arrives, the media is already there. Fortunately, they haven’t gotten farther than they’re supposed to.

“Inspector, will your filing for DV affect the investigation in any way?” a reporter asks, shoving a microphone on his face.

“What?” he continues walking, pushing his eyebrows together, _How do they know about that?_

He enters the tent and gets a quick briefing. There’s been contact with the inside. It’s believed a hostage was able to take one of the phones and contact them. But the message is so cryptic they’re having trouble deciphering it. 

Dominick gets on the chair in front of the phone and calls the mint. 

It gets picked up on the third ring. 

“Don’t we have a special connection here, I was just about to call you,” El Fiscal says. 

“Fiscal, what do you expect from me?”

“I want us to get to know each other.” 

“Oh, we can have drinks and talk about football all you want, after you pay your prison sentence.”

“Harsh, love that.”

“There’s been no casualties. That means we can argue with the _actual_ ,” he emphasizes this, “DA so the charges are just unlawful kidnapping, out in 10 years rather than 15,”

“You know, inspector, if you saw me at a bar, you wouldn’t pay me no mind.”

Dominick rolls his eyes, annoyed at this man’s comments, _of course he wouldn’t, why would he?_ , “We already had access with a hostage.”

This seems to throw El Fiscal off, “You have now?”

“As a lawyer, you might think I’m bluffing, but I’m not,” Sonny can’t help but smirk, “Your set up inside is pretty cute, if you ask me,” he can’t wait to break this guy down. It’s the best part of the job, “your best choice is surrendering,”

“I’m sure.” El Fiscal replies, “Unfortunately, inspector, I have matters to attend.”

And with that, the call ends.

——————

**Inside the Mint**

“I hope none of you think you can be heroes,” Liv says, walking through the line of hostages, “we don’t want to hurt you, so don’t try to outsmart us,”

Someone had had contact with the police using a cellphone. It was a shit show. 

“We really aren’t the bad guys here,” Amanda — _Atlanta_ says. 

“We are just producing money,” Ruben — _Manila_ complements, pointing at the general direction of the printer with the butt of his rifle.  
“Was it you?” Liv says menacingly at a man taller than her, making him flinch, “Alright,”

In an office upstairs, Mike ( _Athens_ ), is helping a man having an anxiety attack breathe, holding his shoulders, “I’m not gonna hurt you,” he says, “I swear I won’t,” 

“I need to get out of here,” the man says between pants. 

Mike nods, “I know, but we can’t,” he points with his head to the general direction of the printer, “We are printing 8 million euros per hour,” he shakes his head, “We won’t stop.”

“Why didn’t you just rob the mint?” he holds on to Mike’s jumpsuit, trying to ground himself.

Mike looks down to the hands holding him, feeling disoriented, “Uh,” he shakes his head again, “It’s a statement,”

The guy blinks rapidly, “Alright,”

“What’s your name?” Mike asks. 

“I’m Gerardo,” he says, finally letting go of Mike, “You?”

“Can’t tell you,” he says, looking out the window.

“Don’t you guys have names of cities?”

“Safety reasons,” Mike says, “I’m Athens.”

Just then, Olivia comes in. 

“Is everything alright here?”

“Yeah,” Mike says, his chin held up, “Gerardo here calmed down, Paris,”

Just then, a vibration with a ringtone begins. Mike widens his eyes, but Liv just smiles, getting closer to Gerardo, where the noise is coming from, “Really? Your crotch?” she stares in disgust, “Hand it over, I’m not sticking my hand down there,” she extends her hand, and Gerardo complies, clearly shaking, Mike has his head thrown back, “Handle this.” Liv says, and she exits the room. 

“Please,” Gerardo begs, “Don’t kill me,” 

Mike walks from one side of the room to the other exasperated, “Why? Why did you have to be the hero?” Gerardo shrugs. 

“God fucking damn it, stand up.” he holsters him with his gun, Gerardo just about unable to walk, “Fuck,” 

He guides him to the bathroom, “I don’t want to kill you,” Mike says. 

“Then don’t,” the guy says. 

“If you tell others you were able to sneak a phone past us, we lose all credibility,” 

“What if I just disappear?”

“What? You can’t just run out of here,”

“No, I mean, I can hide on a vault, you can bring me food and water, it’ll be okay,”

Mike stares at him, “Does the lady expect you to kill me?” Gerardo asks, fear darkening his eyes. 

“No” Mike exhales, “she’s against that,”

“Okay,” he nods his head, “I’ll be good,”

“I hope you are,” 

“I have access to a vault, nobody else does,”

“Do I have to break it, because that’s not really what I do,” 

“What is it that you do, then?” the guy tilts his head.

Mike squints his eyes, “I’m the fists,” 

To this, Gerardo widens his eyes and steps back.

“I already said I’m not going to kill you, hombre.” Mike rolls his eyes, “Guide me to that vault, will you?”

——————

Dominick walks in to the bar, rubbing his temples. This day had been stressful, but overall, he’d consider it a win, considering how El Fiscal panicked upon learning they had something on them.

He leans on the bar, orders a beer, then hears a voice, “Hi.” his sharp senses react, getting the owner of said voice in a chokehold.

“Have you been following me?” he asks the man who had previously lent him a phone. 

“No?” Rafael says, fear on his voice with the strong hold this taller man has on him. 

“Who do you work for?” everyone on the restaurant has eyes on them.

“I’m… I’m a food critic,” he gulps, “My name’s Rafael Barba,”

Dominick lets some of his force off him, “You’ve been at this same bar, asking me questions and trying to talk,”

“I come… I come here daily,” Rafael had seen reports of the Spanish force using police brutality, killing suspects. He didn’t expect Dominick to be like that.

“He does!” the man behind the counter says, with that, Sonny lets Rafael go, who just rubs his skin. 

“Sorry,” Sonny shakes his head, “too much pressure,” he leaves two euros on the counter, not even touching his beer. 

Rafael stays there, confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment! I'm trying my best to update daily.
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	3. Tres

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Domestic abuse is mentioned quite a lot, as well as child abuse. And there's some panic attacks as the result!
> 
> Take care loves

_Vaultbreaker: William Dodds. Code name: Prague. Cop turned robber. Can use any mechanical tool._

_Fighter: Michael Dodds. Code name: Athens. Hot blooded. Involved with drugs. Boxer._

Rafael felt skeptical at first about letting William bring his son along to the heist.

He didn’t bring anything to the team, and having to further split the gains was less than thrilling.

But William said he wouldn’t do it without him, and he already knew too much to be let go. 

And that’s how Mike Dodds became Athens. 

He wasn’t a bad teammate, and Rafael hoped Mike’s buff body would intimidate someone. But he doubted it. Mike wore his heart on his sleeve. 

He wasn’t a mastermind like Prague, but he had some brilliant moments.. And Rafael would give him a gold star for his effort if he had one. 

Prague insisted on opening up to Rafael, and Rafael didn’t like this. 

Until he said something that awoke his interest.

“I used to be a cop,” said Prague. Rafael wasn’t aware of this. He just knew their criminal backgrounds, “They said I had the potential to become a Chief.” Prague continued, Rafael had to use all his willpower not to roll his eyes or tell him to shut up, “I made it as far as Sargeant, and my kid was about to go into the Academy but I just… lost it.” 

Rafael just nodded, “Is that why Athens got involved with drugs?” he asked.

Prague shrugged, “I don’t know where he got that from,” he bit his lips, “I was too busy in and out of jail to notice what he was doing,” 

Rafael just stared at him, not knowing how to comfort this man he didn’t particularly like. Prague interpreted this as an invitation to continue, “He doesn’t use them, just deals,”

“He’s a great kid,” Rafael said. 

“He is, I’m doing this so we can finally go away,” 

“Aren’t we all?”

——————

Dominick decides to call El Fiscal once again. 

“Inspector,” El Fiscal responds after exactly three rings, “What was your favorite game growing up?”

“Excuse me?” Dominick replies.

“I played cops and robbers, and the funny thing is,” he smirks, “Everyone wanted to be the robbers, isn’t that something?”

“There’s people suffering inside the mint because of you,” Sonny says, “And you have the audacity to be talking to me about games?”

“No casualties from either side,” the other man says, “You worry too much,”

Sonny shakes his head, “Hope you sleep well at night,”

“Barely,” and with that, Rafael hangs up.

The inspector didn’t seem to want anything other than remind him of his guilt. Rafael smiles as he makes a mental note to check if he wears a cross around his neck. As he’s picturing a golden chain on Dominick’s pale skin, his phone rings. An unfamiliar number flashing on his screen. He answers.

“Hi?” 

“Hello?” the voice sounds desperate, “This is Bella Carisi, my brother called me from this phone and left a voicemail and I need to contact him immediately, please help me,” the girl speaks too fast. Rafael pushes his eyebrows together. 

“Is everything okay?” Rafael asks, already grabbing his coat and car keys. 

“No, I don’t know where his daughter is,” she sobs. Rafael feels intrigued at the way she’s trusting a complete stranger. Then again, he relies on this blind trust. 

“I’ll go to him,” he drives away, not hanging up on Bella, hearing her soft sobs through the line. And he wonders how Dominick will take this. 

He shakes his head. He can’t start care about him.

He drives on.

——————

“They think we’re stupid,” Dominick says, pacing back and forth in the tent.

“Why do you say that?” Rita asks, pushing her greasy take out ramen around with chopsticks, disgusted, “The food budget for this operation is godawful,”

“Rita,” Dominick says, exasperated with her comment, “Don’t you see it? Goddamnit. They planned this whole thing out,” Rita notions for him to continue with her chopsticks, “They wanted us to think this was a typical heist. They used the initial money in the bags as a distraction,” he exhales, “They’re printing money,” 

Rita adopts a sarcastic tone, “Wow, it’s almost like you were a detective or something,” she drops her chopsticks on the container and tosses it to the side, “Good to know nobody in this tent was smart enough to figure that out,” she says loudly, so everyone hears, Dominick keeps to himself that this includes her as well.

Sonny sits on his chair, face on his hands. He sighs loudly.

“Wait ‘til intelligence hears this,” Rita says, resigning herself by grabbing the take out container, “They’ll have a blast,”

The tent curtains opens, and Dominick turns to see who just entered, weary as usual. He’s taken aback, and he reaches for his gun.

Rafael beelines towards him, “It’s your sister,” he says, handing him his phone, Dominick hesitantly grabs the phone with his free hand, the other still on his service weapon. 

“Hi?” Dominick says, he takes his hand off his weapon when he confirms his sister is indeed on the other line, “What?” his eyes widen, “Is she okay?” his tone stops being calm, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?” he covers the receiver, “I need a car,” he says in Rafael and Rita’s direction, Rafael offers him his keys while Rita just shrugs. He mouths a thank you and makes a run for it. Taking the cellphone with him. 

Rafael then lets his eyes wander through the tent, “Working like ants, huh?” he jokes at Rita. She rolls her eyes and orders some uniforms to kick him out. 

This impromptu visit had given him an insight he didn’t know he could get. He pushes his glasses as he wonders just how close he can get to Dominick. 

He doubts it’ll be too far.

——————

**Flashback - The Dodds**

Growing up, Mike imagined joining the police force just like his father.

Now he was picking him up from prison.

His father fell into a life of crime. And Mike followed suit. 

Ever since his mother left with his brother, Mike knew all he and his dad had were each other. 

He tapped on the steering wheeling. Looking at the entrance, as he saw his father emerge, a smile formed on his lips.

“Hey, pops,” he embraced him in a hug as he entered the vehicle.

His father smiled at him. Mike couldn’t help but notice he looked older. His thick eyebrows had grown white hairs, and his skin looked gray.

“We can go to a burger place, if you want,” he suggested, gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. 

William tilted his head, “Is everything okay, Mike?”

Mike nodded, “I’m just happy to see you again, dad,”

“I’m your father,” William said, “I can tell when you’re nervous, even if you’re good at hiding it,”

Mike sighed, letting his shoulders relax, “I’m in trouble,”

“What do you mean?” 

“I lost my stash,” he didn’t dare look at the reaction on his father’s face, “I didn’t use them, dad, I hate that shit,” he punched the steering wheel, provoking the horn to emit that annoying sound, “I left them in the car, someone must’ve stolen them,” he sighed, “If I don’t get them back, they’ll kill me,”

William considered his son’s words, “We’ll figure something out, Mike,” he put his hand on his shoulder, “It’ll be okay,”

——————

_Dominick_

Dominick frantically opens the door to his house.

“Sonny,” Bella intercepts him on the way in, but he dodges her and keeps walking towards the kitchen, having seen an unfortunately familiar car parked outside, “I couldn’t stop her…”

He freezes when he sees her, even when he was expecting to. She has that effect on him. She’s crouched down, talking to their daughter. Holding a stuffed giraffe. 

“Dad!” Alessa says, he tries his best to offer her a smile, he hates showing her how much her mother affects him, “Mommy took me to the zoo, and she bought me a giraffe!” 

He holds his tiny smile as much as he can, “It’s so cute, Ali!” he looks up to his ex wife, his smile disappearing, “Why don’t you go to your room and introduce it to your other plushies?” his daughter happily complies, and Sonny is left alone in the kitchen with Petra. 

“You can’t keep her away from me,” she says.

“According to the judge,” he says, “I can,” he takes out his handcuffs, “Hands behind your back,”

“Dom, c’mon,” she says.

“You’re violating a restraining order,” he breathes hard, feeling his too familiar panic arise, “I have to arrest you,” he holds her by the wrists against the counter.

Bella interferes from the door, “Sonny…”

“You just let Alessa go with her?” he says, feeling betrayed. 

“She can barely take care of herself,” his ex snarls, “And you expect her to take care of our daughter?” there’s poison in her voice; she never liked Bella.

“I disassociated, Sonny,” Bella says, embarrassed, “I’m sorry,”   
His ex yanks herself off him, and he can’t help but flinch at the sudden movement, “This is ridiculous,” she says, straightening her blouse, “I can see my daughter,” with Dominick frozen by fear from her moving suddenly, she grabs her purse, purposefully bumps against him, and leaves. 

“I-,” Bella begins. 

“Go, please,” Dominick says, Bella opens her mouth. But she sees the fear on his brother’s face, so she leaves.

Once he’s alone, Dominick lets himself collapse on the ground, clutching his head and crying. Panic overtaking him. He wants to be as far away from that monstress as he can. 

He cleans off the tears from his face with his sleeve after letting most of it out. He stands up and sighs. A phone begins vibrating in his pocket. 

Rafael’s phone.

He answers. 

“Hi, inspector,” Rafael replies, “It seems you have my phone and my car,”

“I’m terribly sorry,” he says.

“No, no, it was an emergency, I get it,” Rafael says. 

Dominick smiles softly at Rafael’s apparent tenderness, “Meet you at the cafe,” 

Although Dominick can’t see, Rafael smiles, too, “Sure,” 

——————

**4 months prior**

In their heist-planning hideout, Mike stared at the clear night sky. 

His father approached him, holding two beer cans. He silently handed one to Mike. 

“Do you think we’ll get out of this alive?” Mike asked him, still staring at the sky. 

“Does it matter?” his father answered, taking a sip of the beer, “It’s an opportunity,”

Mike let the silence hang between them for a while, he licked his lips and turned to face his father, “Growing up you told me to never miss an opportunity,” he let that sink it, he bit his lower lip, his eyes tearing up, “And yet,” he let out a dry laugh, “You gave up on the chance to do good, to just _be a cop_ ,” he went back to looking to the sky, “You just _had_ to become a criminal,” he didn’t care how harsh it sounded. It was the truth.  
“That doesn’t justify you going into drugs,” William scolded. 

“What other chance did I have, dad?” he snapped, “I can’t get a job anywhere, they google me and see you, and assume I’m the same and, hell— I very well might be.”

William found no reply to this, and so they finished their beers side by side, silently.

——————

Dominick walks into the café and sees Rafael in a booth. He hands him his phone back. 

“Have a cup of coffee with me?” Rafael says. Dominick tilts his head. 

“I don’t get it,” he sits down opposite to him, “I haven’t been nice to you, and you still want to chat,”

Rafael takes a sip of his coffee, “Guess I’m weird, Dominick,” he shrugs. 

“Sonny,” he replies, cringing at his given name, “call me Sonny,”

“Okay Sonny,” his green eyes seem to shine, and Sonny feels goosebumps, _What’s happening?_ be thinks to himself, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Sonny says, looking at his fidgeting hands. He’d usually fidget with his wedding ring, but that’s long gone, he turns to see Rafael, and the worried look in his eyes compels him, “Actually… no, nothing’s fine. Everything is shit.” Rafael tilts his head. 

“I just saw my ex wife,” he unconsciously touches his ring finger, “She took my kid for the day, and she is supposed to stay away,” he licks his lips, “She has a restraining order against her.” he evaluates Rafael, _I can tell him, he doesn’t know Petra,_ “For domestic abuse.” he expects Rafael to laugh at him, but he can only see compassion in his eyes.

Rafael bites his bottom lip. He understands too well. Memories of his father flood his head, and he shakes his head, trying to chase them away. He wishes he could help Sonny, let him know he’s the same. But emotions have never been his area of expertise.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks.

Sonny gives a weak smile, welcoming Rafael’s empathy, “You’d think I’d have left when the first red flag appeared,” he rubs his wrists, Rafael wonders how she hurt him, “First it just seemed protective, sweet even, not wanting me to go out, the city’s too dangerous. Then it’s her shutting down all my ideas, and I’m a gentleman, so I listened to her,” he closes his eyes, “then came the slapping, the kicking... and she’d apologize immediately, so I didn't think it was a big deal,” 

There's silence for a bit, Rafael can feel a panic rise inside him, knowing exactly what comes next. And wanting to shut his ears. Because he can’t bear to go back to being a helpless child. But he needs to hear Sonny. Because nobody else does.

“It’s like… those horror movies, where you can see it all unfold, and you tell the protagonist to not open that door…” Sonny focuses on his hands again, “And they do it anyway,”   
Rafael looks at him, his heart damn near broken. 

“I didn’t denounce it because, God, I’m a cop,” he says, “And I didn’t want to be the joke of the force, a male cop beaten by his cop wife,” he smiles bitterly, “And then I got a divorce, and by the time I had the guts to denounce it, there was no proof,” he bites his lip, “I was lucky I got full custody and the restraining order,” he wipes the tears he hadn’t realized he’d been shedding off his face with a napkin, “I act all confident but truth is, I don’t know how to take care of myself.”

“I’ll protect you,” Rafael blurts out, surprising himself. Sonny smiles, and he puts his hand on top of Rafael’s. 

Rafael stares at him; and in that moment, he knows for sure: he’s breaking one of his own rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a lil or a big comment <3 
> 
> twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	4. Cuatro

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh gambling addiction mentioned, in case thats a warning needed

_Robber: Amanda Rollins. Code name: Atlanta. Several heists. Has a warrant out for her arrest. Dabbles in illegal gambling rings._

_Forgerer: Nick Amaro. Code name: Havana. Probably the best bill falsifier in Europe. Perfect attention to detail._

**Country house, 3 months prior.**

After a long day of listening to El Fiscal, Nick absentmindedly walks into a room while staring at his phone. He looks up from it and finds the girl he knows solely by the name Atlanta taking her shirt off. A soft surprised gasp escapes him, and she immediately covers up.  
“Fucking pervert,” she snaps.

“Sorry, sorry it was an accident,” she rolls her eyes and puts another shirt on, “Was that…” he starts, hesitantly. She stares at him.

“Can’t you speak?” she replies. He makes a motion with his finger across his lower belly, she instinctively puts her hands on her tummy, “What about it?” She says with her chin up, ready to fight any nasty comment.

“How old?” He asks, she stares at him defiantly, then bites her lower lip.

Amanda takes a deep breath, then let’s her shoulders relax, “Three,” She says, a small smile forms on her lips, “She’s three.”

“What’s her name?” Nick asks, kindness on his eyes. 

Amanda looks to a side, “Jessie,” She lets her smile grow wider, “It means rich,” She nods and turns to face Nick, “She’s my biggest treasure,”

Nick smiles, “I know how that feels,”

Amanda tilts her head, “You too?” Nick nods.

“Is she with her dad?” He asks, diverting the attention away from himself.

“Her dad?” Amanda lets out a dry laugh, “He’s never been in the picture,” She fidgets with her hands, “She’s in foster care, they took her away from me a year ago,”

Nick gives her a compassionate look, “What happened?” 

“Oh,” she sits down on her bed, “I was trying to get my act together, I really was,” she laughs sourly, “But old habits die hard, and having a kid doesn’t erase vices,” She lets her words sink, “I’m a gambling addict, and I did a lot of regrettable things,” She looks down, focusing on her restless hands, “But I don’t think anything beats bringing your kid to a game, and it’s even worse when the one night, the one when you couldn’t deal with the urge no more, is the night there’s undercover cops amongst the players,” she bites her lips “They took her away, and she’s in the system now.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Nick says in a quiet voice. 

She bites her bottom lip, “This is why this heist is everything to me,” she says, “I’m getting her back, and I’m taking her far far away, I’m a good mother, but I’m not perfect. I made a mistake,” She seems near tears, but Nick is sure she won’t cry, “So if you, or anyone for that matter, fucks up this heist, you’ll also be ruining my life.” 

Nick is speechless. He stays there for a few moments. Until he hears El Fiscal approaching. He then heads outside, not before sparing Amanda one last look. 

There was more to this heist than just money.

——————

After his coffee with the mysterious man, Sonny feels on edge about having to go back into the tent. He never opened up to anyone. Ever. Not even Rita knew about the stuff he had just told Rafael. And he is uneasy about it. 

While he’s crossing the lawn to enter the tent, a reporter shoved a microphone on his face, asking him how a battered man could handle such a high stakes case. He feels all those years of anger towards his wife’s treatment of him bubbling up his stomach, like a bomb ready to detonate. And for once, he lets it. 

“Why don’t you go and shove that microphone up your ass?” He says as he grabs the microphone and throws it away. It’s just after the act that he realizes cameras were rolling around him. 

Regardless, he goes inside the tent. He sits down. Turning to see if the perpetually playing news channel was already covering his outburst. Of course they were. What else would they cover? He throws his head back, hoping it’ll all go away on its own. His peace is interrupted by a not to friendly shadow covering him. 

“Carisi, what the fuck is your problem?” The colonel asks, “Do you want to cause us a PR nightmare? I believe I heard you say your personal issues wouldn’t affect this investigation,” 

Sonny looks down at him defiantly, stands up and walks away from the tent without another word. 

He then lets himself panic for a bit. What’s wrong with him? Is this just because he told a stranger about his domestic abuse case? He thinks of how much shit his father dealt with, being a high ranked officer while also taking care of his very sick mother. He feels useless. 

He decides to call his sister. She picks up immediately.

“Hi Sonny,” she says.

“Bella, hi,” he rubs the back of his neck, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay, despite everything,” She sounds embarrassed.

He shrugs, “It happens, I just fucked up,” he smiles sadly.

“In your line of work, that happens a lot,” 

“Doesn’t justify it,”

“But it explains it,” She says.

He licks his lips, “I was just having coffee with this guy and it was all so nice and it made me forget everything about this case for a bit, and then I came back to reality and it wasn’t so sweet,” 

“A guy, huh?” a teasing tone is on her voice, this takes Sonny by surprise.

“Yeah?”

“Do you like him?”

“Bella, I’m straight,” 

“I didn’t ask if you wanted to marry him, just if you like him,” she simply responds.

“I… liked being around him,” he exhales, “Yeah,”

“There you go,” Bella says, encouragingly. “Maybe spending more time with him will make you forget that dreadful robber you keep talking to,” she teases, “And who knows, you might get some out of the situation, even if it’s just to experiment.”

Sonny smiles, unable to be truly angry at his sister, “Whatever you say Bella,” he laughs, “Don’t wait up for me, get some sleep,”

“And you get a hookup,” she replies, he scoffs and hangs up smiling.

——————

**Country house, 3 months prior.**

Amanda knocks on Nick’s door, turning the knob. He’s shirtless, laying in bed, “Oh, sorry,” she says, embarrassed.

Nick chuckles and laughs, “Guess we’re even now,” He puts a shirt on, “What’s up?”

“We didn’t finish our talk the other night, and I felt like such an asshole,” She makes a face, Nick laughs, “I didn’t ask about your kid,”

“Kids, actually,” Nick corrects, “They’re both with their mothers,”

“How old?” Amanda asks, and she seems genuinely interested. Nick is glad about the possibility of finding a friend, despite the circumstances.

“11 and 16,” Nick says smiling.

“A teenager?” Amanda asks, crossing her arms by her chest, “Must be a pester,”

“Wouldn’t know,” Nick says, his smile disappearing, “I haven’t seen him in years,” 

“Why’s that?” Amanda asks.

“Their mothers weren’t too thrilled to learn how I got them all that child support, let’s leave it at that,” he replies, looking down.

“I’m sorry to hear that,”

He shrugs it off, “I’ve been thinking about what you said, how you are doing this to see your daughter again,” Nick says, looking her in the eyes, “And I realized I’m not doing this for anyone, but if this heist gives me the mere chance of seeing them again… then it’s been worth it,”

Amanda gives him a soft smile, “What are their names?”

Nick smiles back, “Gilberto and Zara,” He says, “They’re great kids,”

“I bet they are,” Amanda says. And she feels she can trust somebody on this team. Which means a lot when you’re surrounded by criminals.

——————

_Mike/Athens_

“I brought you food,” Mike says as he opens the vault, handing a small package to Gerardo.

“Don’t you guys have something gluten free?” Gerardo says as he examines the contents of the package. Mike stares at him.

“Are you allergic?” he asks, “Because I can have it arranged, but I think it’s gonna be a bit difficult,”

“I was trying to be funny,” Gerardo says, rolling his eyes, “Comedy? Do criminals do that too?” 

To this, Mike does chuckle, “We’re human too, even if it doesn’t seem that way,”

“You guys have been pretty humane,” Gerardo says, opening up the package, “Have I been the only one to draw the short straw?”

“You did steal a phone,” Mike says, “We can’t have people knowing about that.”

Gerardo shrugs, “I appreciate you not killing me,” 

Mike rolls his eyes, “I was never planning on doing that, I’m kinda concerned you’d think I’d do that,”

“Have you ever killed anyone?” Gerardo says, a glimpse of adrenaline on his eyes. 

Mike stares at him, “I dabbled in drugs,” He says, frowning, “I’ve never had the need to do it, and I’d never do it anyways,” He shrugs, “I’m not a hitman, if that’s what you’re scared of,”

“Then why are you involved in this?” Gerardo tilts his head, “If you’re the fists?”

Mike shrugs, “You’ll have to find out,” he smiles at him, and Gerardo smiles back.

“Can’t wait,” he says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae
> 
> I finally watched Heartfelt Passages so there's that


	5. Cinco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for gay to begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW - it's Liv's canon origin story, so tw for abuse and rape

When Sonny gets home, he immediately strips down to his boxers and throws himself under his covers. It’s only 11 pm, but he feels the day has gone on for forever. Between seeing his ex wife, and the incident with the reporter, it feels like a week has passed between noon and now, rather than just a couple of hours. 

As soon as his head hits the pillow, he falls asleep. 

He rarely dreams. So he has trouble understanding what’s going on, he struggles recognizing the face, but when he does, he swears he’s never looked at something more ethereal. He especially can’t stop staring at those eyes. Those green, lovely eyes…

Sonny wakes up feeling confused. He is straight. He had never had any doubts about that. But thinking about Rafael’s eyes was making him feel… _No,_ he has no time to even think about what a dumb dream could mean. There’s more pressing events than an upcoming sexuality crisis.

He gets out of bed and fixes himself a shower, letting the water take those feelings away.

——————

When he gets to his kitchen, Alessa and Bella are already having breakfast. He kisses Alessa’s temple and squeezes Bella’s shoulder, then sits down on the spare stool.

He takes a sip of his coffee and grabs the main section of the newspaper, “How’s school, kiddo?” he asks his daughter.

“Meh,” the seven year old simply replies, still fixated on her breakfast.

He chuckles, “First grade isn’t very exciting,”

They continue in comfortable silence, until Alessa’s school bus arrives to the front of their house, and Sonny walks her to it, kissing the top of her head, “I love you,” he says as he lets go of her hand. 

“I love you too, dad,” she kisses his cheek and gets on the bus. Sonny smiles.

He gets back inside to the house, still a half hour left until he has to go to the base tent. 

He sees Bella staring nervously at something on her phone, “What’s wrong?”

She sighs, “Reading some updates about Pararibulitis,” she puts her phone down, “It doesn’t seem promising,”

“Hey,” he holds her hand, “It’s gonna be okay, Bella,”

She smiles sadly, “It’s just… knowing that at any time I could feel like a car is crushing me fucking sucks,” she sighs loudly and shrugs, “But it’s fine,”

“It’s not,” Sonny says, “You’re allowed to feel angry about it, it’s not fucking fair,” 

“What will you do if Alessa has the gene too?” Bella asks, Sonny freezes, this is something he has thought a lot about, but he has never discussed it with Bella. 

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t,” he says, “but if she does, we’ll give her all the support she needs,” he nods, “It’ll be okay,” 

——————

**Inside the mint**

Liv is sitting down in one of the offices, when William walks in.

“Comfortable?” he asks her as he sits down in the chair in front of her. She smiles. 

“I always wanted an office, all for me,” she says, “But given my background, I never figured it was really an option,”

“This heist really keeps giving us opportunities, doesn’t it?” William replies. 

“Weren’t you a cop?” Liv asks him.

He draws his thick eyebrows together and crosses his arms, “What about it?”

Liv smiles sadly, “I wanted to be one too, but I never figured that was an option,” she bites her lower lip, “My mother always told me I was good for nothing,” she chuckles, “Even tried to kill me once,” William looks at her, concerned, “She didn’t want me,” 

“Why do you say that?” he asks.

She considers for a moment, “I’m the product of her rape,” she shrugs, “And she never missed a chance to remind me of that,” 

“That’s awful,” he replies, he reaches out for her hand, she holds his. 

“It’s probably why I went into crime,” she relaxes into her seat, “Trying to act out,” she stares into the distance for a moment, considering, “Maybe it’s in my blood,” 

“You aren’t raping anyone, it’s not the same,” 

“We’re depriving people of their freedom, Prague,” she says, not looking at him, “They’ll probably need therapy after this. We’re awful,”

“Then hand yourself over, Paris, ruin this for all of us,” William looks at her defiantly, she stands her ground, “Is that what you want? Is that why El Fiscal chose you to lead us?” 

“He chose me because I have a heart,” she responds.

He looks calm, but his voice is firm, “Then stay here and prove it,” he stands up to leave, “We’re criminals, Paris, that’s a fact,” he opens the door, “But we’re not the bad guys.” a stern look on his face tells Liv he truly believes this. 

And he’s right; this isn’t just about money. They’re sending a message as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's go gays let's go
> 
> As stated in the tags.... slow-burn
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae
> 
> S/O to my boy snnycarisi bc he's been betaing everything
> 
> Also to soul_writerr for helping me with the Prague/Paris scene <3
> 
> Don't forget to comment AAAAAA


	6. Seis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Does Sonny invite Rafael to a date? Omg. 
> 
> Also he fucks up <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m posting this from my phone so idk if there’s any warnings. I don’t think so!

Once again, Sonny braces himself to call El Fiscal. Three rings in, as always, he answers. 

“I thought you forgot about me,” he says, feigning sadness in his voice. 

Sonny chuckles, “Nah, all I do is think about you,” 

“Damn, what a fantasy,” El Fiscal cheekily says, was he flirting? Sonny can’t help but blush, then he immediately composes himself. 

“Oh yeah it’s a fantasy alright,” he says in his best intimidating voice, “A fantasy involving handcuffs. I put them on you and shove you into a patrol, how about that?” he smiles. 

Sonny could swear the other man licked his lips at this, “Like it rough, inspector?”

“Maybe,” Sonny says, “It’s a shame you won’t find out,” he says in a dreamy voice, attempting to break the man on the other line of the phone, “since you’ll be spending the rest of your life behind bars,” he smiles.

“Inspector, please,” he sounds annoyed, probably at Sonny’s new approach, “You’re bluffing, it’s 16 years at most, we haven’t killed anyone and material losses will barely cost a thing. No judge would give us a life sentence,”

Sonny stays silent. 

“I told you I studied law,” El Fiscal says, Sonny would strangle him right now if he could. 

“You seem rather fond of me Fiscal,” Sonny says, then takes a deep breath, ready to try a new approach he recently learned: making the criminal think something about his gameplan is compromised, “I’ll give you a heads up: I’ll be laid off the case unless you release 8 hostages. I can’t promise the next inspector will be as… nice as I am,”

“Let me guess… you want Allison Parker?”

Sonny turns his neck to look at Intelligence, they’re nodding vigorously. He bites his lip. “Yeah… yeah, one of them has to be Allison,”

“How about… I give you Allison… And no one else,” Intelligence keeps nodding. Sonny isn’t so sure. But he sighs.

“Sure,” he says defeated. 

“Are you sure you want to save one life instead of 8?” 

“Y– yeah,” he says. Hating every moment of this.

“Wow, I knew the Spanish Police were awful. But I wasn’t expecting this from you, inspector. What if this leaks?” 

Sonny closes his eyes, “It won’t,” Rafael snarls his lips into a grin.

“Have it your way then.”

With that, he hangs up. Sonny leaves out a huge sigh, and shakes his head, “Is an English life more important than our people, now?” he asks Intelligence, they just shrug. 

Sonny knows it’ll get worse before it gets better.

——————

An hour after the call, Rafael receives a call to his personal cell. He smiles upon seeing Sonny’s picture on the identifier. He repeats to himself that he isn’t supposed to feel this way about the inspector investigating his robbery. But he is nice to be around.

“Hello?” he replies at the first ring. Fuck theatrics.

“Rafael, hi!” he can hear Sonny’s smile on his voice. _This damn man is gonna be my downfall._

“Hi Sonny, what’s up,” 

“What’s up with you…” he exhales in a weird way. Rafael chuckles out of mere principle, feeling awkward, “I mean, uh, I’m good, you?”

“I’m great,” he smirks.

“You know,” Rafael can hear Sonny moving around. This man can’t stay put, “I’m at the cafe, and you’re not here, I was getting used to always spotting you here,”

Knowing Sonny can’t see him, Rafael smiles. He had given Manila a MP3 file of their conversation. And it wouldn’t be long until it was playing in every news show. He almost felt bad for the backlash Sonny would face, he was certain that, given the choice, he wouldn’t have chosen one life over eight, “Sorry, I had to run some errands,”

“Oh! Sorry,” Sonny says, Rafael’s smile only grows, “I just wanted you to know that I told my sister about you, and she said I need… uh, more friends and like, I really enjoy your presence. Want to um, grab dinner?”

“Would love to,” Raf simply replies. 

“At 8?” 

“Of course,”

“Great! See ya!” Rafael can hear Sonny is very much excited about this. _Was this a date?_

——————

When Sonny gets back to the tent, he’s beaming, happy about the prospect of talking to Rafael later on the day. But everyone stares at him dead serious when he enters.

“What happened?” he asks Rita. She points at the TV

“... Inspector Dominick Carisi would rather sacrifice the lives of 8 Spaniards for ONE foreigner, I mean, this man is a joke…” Sonny closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“It was Intelligence's fault, you said you would always handle the blame if there was a controversy,” he lowers his voice, “So why is my name being uttered, and not yours?”

“Intelligence can’t make any statement,” the colonel says, avoiding Sonny’s eyes.

“Of course you can’t. Of course you fucking can’t.” Sonny grabs his coat and leaves to his house for the noon.

What a fucking nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment!
> 
> twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	7. Siete

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> >:|

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no warnings

When Sonny gets home, he immediately sighs, throws his coat on the hanger, and enters his room, turning on the TV. Just like he expected, most of the national channels are bad mouthing him. 

He feels hopeless; there’s nothing he can do about this. He can’t pin it on El Fiscal, since there were a lot of lower-range officials in the tent when the decision took place. Any of them could’ve leaked the conversation. And he wouldn’t say out loud, but he was glad someone did. 

His daughter comes into his room as he disconnects the TV. 

“Hi sunshine,” he says, picking her up and kissing her cheek, he always smiles when she’s near. She’s the reason he keeps doing this. 

“Daddy,” Alessa says, jumping to free herself from his embrace, “I wanna live with mommy,” she says firmly, hands on her hips and a small pout on her mouth, even as his heart shatters, Sonny can’t help but admire her conviction. 

“Ali,” he says, crouching down to her level, “Mom has hurt me a lot, you know that right? Remember all the bruises?” he feels like dying, his daughter shouldn’t be involved in this crossfire between him and his ex wife.

“She told me you’re lying,” she says, “I wanna go with her, you’re never here,”

“I have an important job, sweetie,” he says, considering, “tell you what? We can go get burgers, wherever you want,” they can talk about this later. Petra can’t hurt Alessa as well. 

She looks at him, considering, “Okay, but only if there’s ice cream too,”

“Whatever you want, princess, and tell you what,” he boops her nose, making her giggle, “When this assignment is over, I’ll take you and Bella to Italy,”

Alessa’s eyes sparkle, “Really?” he has only taken her to Italy once, before Petra showed her true colors. 

“Anything for you,” Alessa smiles widely, her tooth gaps showing, and Sonny kisses her cheek again.

“C’mon, wake Bella up so we leave,” he says, and as he watches his kid run to his aunt’s room, he feels love filling his heart up.

——————

**2 months prior**

In the hideout, the whole team was drinking sangria and fooling around.

“Hey, Fiscal,” Havana – Amaro called, “What do we do if they get in, huh?”

“Shoot them down?” Atlanta – Rollins suggested, the rest of the team laughed, drunk on the sour beverage. 

“They won’t,” El Fiscal – Barba, said. This awoke curiosity on all of them. 

“What do you mean they won’t?” Manila – Morales asked. 

They all stared at El Fiscal, waiting for his answer, clinging to his every word.

“They won’t get in,” he said, emphasizing by pressing his finger to the desk, “Because nobody will want them to,”

The whole group laughed, “Why won’t they, now?” Paris – Benson inquired.

“Remember 15M? The demonstration at Puerta del Sol? The police never went in,” he grabbed one of the snacks in front of him, “You know why?”

“Why?” Athens – Dodds Jr. asked.

“Because we were rooting for them,” he propped the snack to his mouth with a quick motion, “Besides,” he gestured dismissively, “there are minors inside, they wouldn’t dare,”

They all nodded and toasted to this.

——————

After lunch with his family, Sonny goes to the tent again. He doesn’t even try to hide how irritated he is. 

“You know,” Colonel Prieto says as Sonny sits down, “You have the entire support of the government,” 

Sonny faces him, pushing his eyebrows in anger, “I don’t fucking care if the Queen herself kisses my fucking hand, I care what my daughter and my sister think of me, and right now, I’m just the biggest asshole in Spain, so fuck off with that,” this leaves the Colonel speechless, and he retreats to his spot. Sonny turns to ask for updates.

——————

**2 months prior**

“Fiscal,” Manila said, “How exactly are we getting out?” everyone turned their heads to look at Rafael, they’ve all been wondering this.

“Well, we’re building a tunnel,”

“But can’t they see that?” Prague – Dodds Sr. asked. 

“Of course they can,” Rafael picked his sangria glass up, “That’s why we’re not using that tunnel, but one they can’t detect, one I got made 5 years ago,” 

They all reacted surprised, Mike clapped, Nick cheered, and Liv smiled. 

They toasted once again.

——————

_Athens— Mike Dodds._

“You know, at first I was scared of you,” Gerardo says, biting his sandwich, “But you’re actually quite nice to be around,” 

Mike scoffs, “I sure hope I am, or else I’m fucked in the dating department, huh?” he laughs, “A criminal record and an unlikeable personality are deal breakers on Tinder, I’m guessing?”

Gerardo smiles, “I mean, you’re quite handsome,” he says, “I bet most people would be willing to overlook those things for that,” 

Mike stares at him, unsure if he’s coming on to him, he decides it’s not an urgent matter, and continues going at his own food.

——————

Sonny holds his face on his palms. Tired of hearing so many negative comments about his person. Most of them bringing up his abuse.

Rita comes and softly places her hand on his back, “It’ll pass,” she says. 

“I know but,” Sonny lifts his head from his hands, “The decision was barely mine, and I’m the only one facing backlash,” he sighs, “It’s bullshit.”

She shrugs, “Comes with the job, will you quit?”

“I think this means, more than anything, that I’m needed here,” he says firmly.

She smiles at him, then takes a deep breath, “Just wanted you to know… I believe you,” 

He stares at her, “Do you?” he tilts his head.

“Yes,” she says, “At first it was a bit sketchy, because of the way we’ve been brought up to believe women can’t hurt men,” she simply says, “but I can see how deeply hurt you are, and that’s proof enough,” she takes a hold of his hand.

He gives her a small smile, “Thanks Rita, it means a lot,” she hugs him gently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual comment and kudos!
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	8. Ocho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no warnings

_Hacker: Rubén Morales. Code name: Manila. Excellent with computers. Doesn’t have a record. Excellent at covering his tracks._

“Are you sure you can do this?” Paris asks over his shoulder, he rolls his eyes.

“It’s not like Spain actually cares about their techno-security,” he clicks some more keys, Paris looks, fascinated, “if they did, they’d have hired me to build this firewall– it’s so fucking bad, Paris,” 

He tries explaining to Liv what’s wrong with the system, laughing about how ridiculous it all is. Liv pretends to understand.

“Is it true you’ve never so much as shoplifted?” she blurts out, interrupting his ranting on encryption, he stares at her, “I mean– that you don’t have a criminal record… is it… is it true?”

“Well,” Manila turns his chair to face her, “I broke some people’s noses in like, high school?” 

Paris scoffs, “I bet you got in trouble for that, but I’m asking, have you ever been in prison?” 

“No,” Manila says, “but neither has Athens,” 

“Athens has been arrested, that’s the difference,” Paris says, “he just happens to have a great attorney who gets him off with community service alone,”

Manila scrunched his eyebrows together, “Isn’t it better if I don’t have a criminal record at all? Anyways, none of you do anymore anyway, since I wiped you all off the face of the Earth?” 

“They keep physical copies,” she stands up, smoothing her outfit, “I guess I just don’t understand your motivations, Manila,” she heads for the door, “Why are you here?” she heads out.

He knows the answer is simple: ambition. Wanting to be remembered. Even if it was as ‘the hacker on the biggest heist ever’.

——————

Mike blissfully sleeps in the vault, shirtless, as he usually does. 

His job is to make sure Gerardo doesn’t pull any other funny stunts. And well, he has to sleep, too. Even if Gerardo tries anything, Mike is the one calling the shots, he has an assault rifle, and Gerardo has nothing. 

Yet he seems inclined to trust him. 

And really, there’s no reason not to. Gerardo looks at a sleeping Mike. How peaceful this bulk of a man looked with his eyes closed. His hand still placed on his huge MI-16. His bare chest going up and down with his steady breathing. God, fucking art. 

Gerardo temptatively goes closer to him, just to stare at him. And he doesn’t know if he’s coming down with a case of Stockholm Syndrome, but this man, the man who calls himself Athens… He’s absolutely gorgeous. 

Fuck.

——————

Three rings, it’s comforting how this never changes. Sonny smiles at the thought and runs his hands through his product filled hair.

“Inspector, I was just thinking about–”

“Cut the bullshit,” Sonny says, wanting this day over with, “I need proof all the hostages are alive,” 

“You know, it’s kinda sexy when you go straight for the kill,”

“Oh,” Sonny smiles and shakes his head, “trust me. You’ll _know_ when I’m going for the kill, Fiscal,”

To this, the other man chuckles, “You’ll have your proof,” 

With that, the line dies. 

Sonny sighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's so short omg 
> 
> I promise I'll make up for it.
> 
> Leave comments and kudos.
> 
> Eat fruits and veggies.
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	9. Nueve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonny goes in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, no warnings again. damn.

Rafael’s phone rings, Sonny’s number flashes on his screen. He stops punching the boxing bag in front of him and picks up the phone, a bit out of breath. 

“Hey,” he says, regaining his breath. 

“Rafa!” Sonny says, a smile in his voice, this was obviously a different version of himself from the one that talked to ‘El Fiscal’, he almost chuckles at the talk, “Did I interrupt anything?” The way curiosity carried on his voice made Rafael smile.

“Just me working out, don’t worry,”

“Oh! I just… I wanted to see where we were going for dinner? I was thinking someplace fancy, but then I thought of myself using a tie after years of making a point not to and I just felt stupid and–” he takes a deep breath, he had allowed himself to ramble, “any other place would make me feel weird, so I thought back and the café seems like the obvious choice, doesn’t it?”

Raf chuckles, “Yeah, yeah it does,” 

“Well,” Raf can tell Sonny is pacing from one spot to another, is he nervous over dinner? “See you then,” 

“See ya.” Raf hangs up. Yeah. A different Sonny from the one who tells him he’s going to prison. Definitely.

——————

When the photos sent as proof arrive, Sonny nearly throws them all away in a fury. _Did they think this was a joke?_ Sonny goes to the phone and dials El Fiscal. Third ring. Reliable. Ha. 

“Inspector,” he solemnly answers. 

“What the fuck is your problem?”

“Woah,” El Fiscal replies, “not feeling the attitude, I’m hanging up, you’re talking to me the way God intended for two humans to communicate: with respect;”

“Don’t you fucking lecture me about God you piece of–” he had hung up. Sonny is flabbergasted. But he rings him again, regardless. Sonny is a professional. 

“Fiscal,” he regards him, trying to start over to fulfil the wishes of this strange man. 

“Inspector, so nice of you to call me,” he says, “how’s your day?”

“Shitty” Sonny says, “Yours?”

“I’ve had worse,” Sonny deems the small talk satisfactory.

“Fiscal, these pictures you sent our way are worthless and you know it,”

“We work with what we have,”

“Well, what you have is not enough, Fiscal,”

“Is that the state of your sex life?” Sonny rolls his eyes at the question.

“With this job, I don’t have much of one,” he answers truthfully.

“A handsome man like yourself,” Sonny laughs.

“Like I said, busy,” he licks his lips, “I’m going in,” 

“To make sure everyone is alive,” it’s not a question.

“Yes,”

“Then go in alone, each and everyone of the hostages will be accounted for, I can promise you as much,” 

“Not gonna lie, I expected some resistance,” Sonny asks, skeptical as always. 

El Fiscal sighs, “What’s the point, Inspector?” he simply says, “If you wanna see all the hostages and account for them, do it,” 

Sonny licks his lips, unsure of what’s going on, “Alright,” he hangs up.

——————

It’s not his first time inside the Mint. Far from it, but as soon as he steps in, he can feel a heavier air around him, something lingering. He closes his eyes and continues walking. He can feel his heartbeat drumming on his ears. 

One of the female robbers steps closer to him, then takes off her mask, revealing brown hair and brown eyes, with a considerate look on her eyes. She looks nothing like a robber. This doesn’t bring peace to Sonny in any way. 

“Well,” she says, inspecting him from head to toe with her eyes, “aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” she smiles, and Sonny feels self conscious just from being around her. Now that’s more like it.

The woman signals for another robber to come close, a guy takes off his mask, revealing a black haired man with latino features, Sonny sizes him up, “Havana,” the alpha woman says, “be a dear and frisk him,” she smiles again, and Sonny feels shivers down his spine. She seems so caring, so nice. And yet, here she is. 

The man regarded to as Havana vigorously frisks him, and Sonny’s calm. Whatever they need to find on him, they’ll find it. 

On his pectorals, Nick feels a microphone, “Really?” he says, sticking his hand in, “Not even on your dick? C’mon,” he throws the microphone to the masked, blonde lady who lifts said mask to inspect the microphone. 

The obvious robber in charge, who the other robbers refer to as Paris, guides him to a desk. A masked man brings him coffee, “El Fiscal’s favorite,” Paris points out, “it’s showtime,” and thus, it begins. 

One by one, each of the hostages appear, they answer some of Sonny’s questions, then let the next hostage pass. Everything is ordinary. And Sonny doesn’t get why he needed to be here, why they couldn’t send the right pictures.

“Oh! This one reminds me of my mom,” Paris says, upon a middle aged woman appearing through the stairs, “of course, she’s dead. Big difference there,”

Sonny knits his eyebrows together at the bizarre comment. 

He thinks long and hard of what the point is, why he’s here, where El Fiscal is… Why did they send such low res pictures. Why bother?

As the Mint falls silent from any human voice, he hears the answer. The money printer working hard. He closes his eyes. Of course. Of fucking course. 

They’re just buying time. 

“Can we get this over with?” he says then, exasperated.

The blonde lady looks at him and laughs, “Or what?” she says in a mocking tone, “You’ll cuff us?” she gets closer to him, and he just looks at her with a bored expression. If she thinks she has any effect on him, she’s wrong. He yawns, to make the point.

And so, they bring him the last batch of prisoners. Letting him go. And as he walks away, he wonders what’s going through their heads. Is this all about the money, then? 

Maybe the answer will lead him to the shutdown of this operation. 

He continues walking, hoping someone will feel inclined to cooperate, seeing he’s such a nice, sunny guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to comment!
> 
> Part 3 of the show comes out this friday *screeches* i'm undecided if i'll continue as far bc duh, i havent seen it. but anyway
> 
> Did you know this is the most watched non-english speaking netflix show? wow. 
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae


	10. Diez

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings.

“Don’t you think it’s weird?” Rita asks, while eating her wrap. 

“What is?” Sonny says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. 

“This guy, coming into your life, just now,” Sonny shrugs.

“When was he supposed to come?” He says, taking another bite. 

“I don’t know, just,” she looks into empty space, Sonny waits for her to continue, “when you’re not involved in such a high stakes investigation,” she shrugs, “he’s been inside this tent,”

“So have a lot of people,” he snarks back. 

Rita puts her hands up defensively, “I’m just saying, what do you know about this guy?”

“He’s a food reviewer,” he answers, Rita stares at him, “What?”

“And you’re gonna eat with him at a lowlife café, alright, he’s a great connoisseur, great,”

“I suggested the place,” Sonny says, not looking up from his chicken salad.

“What are his intentions, Sonny?” Rita says, crossing her arms as she places the wrap down on her plate.

Sonny shrugs, “I think he might like me?” he says.

Rita knits her eyebrows in worry, “And do you like him back?”

“I wanna be his friend,” he continues avoiding her eyes.

“You know what I meant,” Rita says, a disappointed look on her face. Sonny bites his lip.

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know.” 

“You either know or you don’t, Sonny.” Rita says firmly.

“But how? How am I supposed to know?” he raises his voice more than he should, eliciting a few concerned looks. He sighs. “Can we not talk about this?” 

Rita rolls her eyes, “Just think about it, and beware,” she steals a piece of lettuce from Sonny’s plate, “stranger danger,” she wiggles her eyebrows.

——————

As Amanda fidgets with the microphone, it pops open. Ever the curious one, she inspects the interiors of it; it’s hollow. She chuckles. Was this the police’s great plan of her surrendering? She laughs.

She reads the inside; a phone number next to the words, “call for a chance,” she rolls her eyes. But escapes to the bathroom anyway.

She dials the number on her burner phone. _Fucking waste of time._

At the second ring, the inspector himself picks up; this provokes a smile to form on Amanda’s face.

“Hi hot stuff,” she says, licking her teeth.

“Hi… Miss…”

“Atlanta,” she says, “sweet like a peach and all that,” 

“Right,” 

“Straight to the point, what’s the deal?” She is ready for whatever this lanky man will tell her, El Fiscal had told them all about what they’d be offered; a reduced sentence, prison privileges, the usual.

“5 years,” he says, “and I’ll assume you have a daughter?”

“It’s rude to assume, inspector,” she says.

“You could see her,”

She laughs openly, “You and me both know no judge would allow that,”

“Right, your mentor is a lawyer,” he says, an annoyed tone in his voice.

“Let me tell you something, inspector,” she starts, “I’ve lost it all, everything, and El Fiscal is giving me a second chance, right?” She lets that sink in, a fierce look in her eyes, even when she knows the inspector can’t see her, “I won’t be out in five years, no matter who’s dick you suck,” Sonny winces at this remark, _is she always this crude?_ “so, fuck off,”

“You could get a good lawyer. The DA…” 

“Don’t,” she raises a hand, pure theatrics. She smirks, “it’s rude to make promises you don’t intend to keep, inspector,” and with that, she hangs up. She takes a deep breath and immediately starts crying, punching the wall and hyperventilating. The realization of her never seeing her kid again weighing down on her. She fucked up, and this was just a scream into the void. Nothing more, nothing less.

——————

After lunch, Mike and Gerardo start arguing.

“Why won’t you let me join the other hostages already?” says Gerardo.

“So you can tell them what you did?” Mike scoffs, “Yeah, right,” 

Gerardo rolls his eyes dramatically, then considers his options as Mike picks up their food containers, “Maybe you just want me for yourself,” he says. 

Mike turns to face him, “What is that supposed to mean?” he says, putting his full 6'2 to tower over the much shorter Gerardo. He doesn’t even flinch. Mike holds eye contact with him, scrutinizing him. 

“You damn well know what I mean,” Gerardo challenges him, unsure of what’s happening.

“If you think this is some sort of slave/master fantasy,” Mike steps away, “you’re wrong,”

He heads for the exit, shaking his head, “And what if I want it?” Gerardo asks. Mike turns.

“You don’t,” Mike says, biting his lip, “you’re just bored,”

“Don’t we owe it to ourselves?” he walks closer to Mike, closing the space between them, touching his buff arms. Mike stands very still.

“I might be a robber,” Mike says, nearly in a whisper, closing in to Gerardo so much that their noses touch, “but I don’t take advantage of people,” and with that, he exits. Gerardo stays there, stunted.

——————

After the useless exchange between him and one of the robbers. Sonny shakes his head, and dials his sister. 

“Took you long enough,” she answers, Sonny can tell she was doing nothing by her tone.

“Don’t you have a job?” he asks.

“Right back at you,” she snarks back, “what is it?”

Sonny rubs his temples, “Any attacks?” 

“No, why?” she says, sipping her tea.

“Just checking in, I guess,” he says.

“So you’re nervous for your date tonight, huh?” 

Sonny chuckles, “Not a date,”

“Sure isn’t,” Bella teases, Sonny rolls his eyes, “it’d be okay if it was,”

“But it isn’t,” he says, and it comes out a bit more aggressive than intended, “sorry,”

“Sure, sure,” Bella says, unaffected, stirring her tea, “whatever you say bro,”

“Don’t forget your medicine,” now it’s Bella’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Seeing as I need them to y’know, not collapse, I won’t,” she says, “Now, go prepare,”

He laughs, “Yeah, sure,” he smiles, “love you,”

“Love you back,” Bella says, “have fun,”

“Oh,” Sonny says, staring at his badge, “believe me, I will,” he grins.

——————

After the call with Bella is over, Sonny heads to the café. His service weapon safely tucked on his shoulder holsters. He sits down on a booth and takes a deep breath. Then he scrolls through his Apple watch. Before dialing Rafael, he fiddles with his nose piercing and bites his lip. This man provoked something in him Sonny hadn’t felt in a long time. And he isn’t quite sure he is into it. He clicks on Rafael’s number, dialing him. 

He picks up immediately, which brings comfort to Sonny, _can’t be too sure,_ his mind whispers, he shakes it off. 

“Hi,” Rafael’s voice sounds clear.

“So,” Sonny drags his finger through the desk, one of his nervous habits, then he pulls at his piercing again, “I was supposed to meet with this guy…”

“Hm,” Rafael considers, “I believe that man still had a spare half hour?”

“Let’s just say,” Sonny says, unsure of what he’s doing, “the man waiting for him has no patience,” 

“I can see that,” Rafael stays quiet for a bit, Sonny’s scared he blew it up, “the man can see you in 10 minutes,”

“I’ll wait patiently,”

“Thought you couldn’t do that?” Rafael teases, Sonny can imagine him raising one of his blonde eyebrows.

“For this man,” he says, “I’ll try,” he smiles.

“See you, then,” Rafael hangs up.

Sonny sighs deeply. He is unaware of how the evening will turn out. But the thoughts he had been having for the past few days haunt him. This is not the time to be having a sexuality crisis. 

He puts his face on his hands. He had never as much entertained the thought of being with a guy, _ever._ And just his luck, the moment he finds a guy who makes him doubt what he thought was set on stone, he might be an actual criminal. He could cry. 

But he can’t. 

The night is still young.

——————

Gerardo counts once again the tiles on the roof. He thinks back to a definition of the word ‘crazy’ he read a while ago: _doing the same thing over and over, expecting the results to be different,_ was this it? Had he gone irreparably insane? He never expected his sanity to end due to a handsome robber. But hey, wasn’t it poetic?

Just as he is about to count the tiles again, Mike goes back in.

They both stay quiet, Mike quietly sitting down next to him.

“When did you know?” he asks, after a few uncomfortable minutes.

“Know what?” he asks, Mike throws him a look, “I guess since always,” he shrugs.

“I knew when I was told I was, at the playground,” he says, scowling, “started boxing immediately afterwards,” he turns to face Gerardo, “because I knew they were right,”

Gerardo looks at him with sadness. Mike hates it, he wants to scream, but instead, he closes his eyes. Controlling his anger has never been easy. But he can’t go off. There’s no boxing bag here, and he can’t hurt people. He lets out a big breath before opening his eyes, just to see Gerardo with a worried expression on his eyes.

“Don’t give me pity, I hate pity,” he rolls his eyes. Gerardo then tentatively puts a hand on Mike’s tigh. He stares at it, one eyebrow perking up. 

“May I?” Gerardo asks, slowly leaning in. Mike closes his eyes and nods. 

The kiss is small, just a start at first. It ends quickly. Mike licks his lips, “You don’t want me,” he says. 

“Shut up,” Gerardo says, as he kisses him again, this time, their mouths open, and they share _something_. Perhaps it’s mere tenderness. But it feels special. A tear falls from Mike’s eye. Gerardo swipes it away in a smooth movement. They’re two people. Alone together.

——————

Rafael entertains his glass of scotch as Sonny takes a swig of his beer. He allows himself to indulge in the splendid view that was Dominick’s adam’s apple moving as he swallowed. It takes everything inside him not to lick his lips. 

Sonny sets the empty beer on the table, “So, Rafael,” he smiles, “live close by?” he bites the interior of his bottom lip.

Rafael scratches his beard, “Yeah,” _now_ he licks his lips at the prospect of what this question suggests. 

“Do me a favor,” Sonny says, almost in a whisper, sending shivers down Rafael’s back. From the get go he knew he was fucked over this man. That the whole plan could fall apart because of his feelings. And he had actively chosen to ignore this, to continue pursuing a… _something_ with this blond man, “look under the table,”

Rafael nearly chokes on his own saliva at the command, “What?” 

“Look under the table,” Sonny insists.

“Sonny, this is very inappropriate,” he knits his eyebrows together in confusion.

“Just do it,” 

With a worried expression, he complies. And his jaw drops and his heart nearly stops at the sight.

A gun, pointed at him. He slowly retracts back to his sitting position. 

“Take me to your place,” Sonny says, “won’t ya?” 

Rafael gulps, looks at the gun, then nods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand with that I'm off updates til Friday ;p
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae 
> 
> Comment what you think will happen!


	11. Once

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :^)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

They slowly walk into the place Rafael calls home. He has his arms up, Sonny pushing him with a gun on his back. He breathes heavily; unable to tell what the exact endgame was. Had Sonny finally caught up on who he was? What exactly gave it away? What was he hoping to find here? His equipment, all the computers, and the phone, were in the attic, disguised by a myriad other things he had stored up there. He had the whole equipment, even the phone, turned off. Sonny wasn’t going to find what he was looking for. Except maybe this was some sort of twisted game Sonny had. His usual way of ending dates? He really hoped it wasn’t, because he didn’t have to have a gun on his temple in order to kiss the tall, lean man who was guiding him through his hallway. He grins at the thought, regardless.

Sonny starts inspecting Rafael’s place. Moving stuff around, finding nothing. With his gun still pointed at his direction, Rafael nervously follows his movements with his eyes. He isn’t nervous about getting caught, he is nervous Sonny might pull the trigger at any point. Sonny is calm, collected, but Rafael knows he probably is under a lot of stress, and people under stress tend to act erratically. 

While Sonny rummages through things in his apartment, Rafael thinks back at Catholic school; confessions every Friday, as if you had time in the week to sin between those fucking exams. He thinks of the gold chain he carries with a medallion of the archangel Rafael; the one he’s named after. Patreon of happy meetings, insanity, lovers, nightmares… As he feels the medallion heavy against his heaving chest, he tries to remember why he carries it. Anything to distract himself from that dreadful gun. He wonders what saint Sonny has a medallion for under his shirt. Which leads to dangerous mental territory when he considers how his body might look below those clothes. He takes a deep, audible breath, which in turn causes Sonny to turn towards him. He shuts his eyes. He’s not scared. He just doesn’t look forward to dying. 

“Where do you keep it, huh?” Sonny says, his voice cracking as he shoves his pistol into Rafael’s side, causing him to gasp, air escaping his lungs.

“I don’t… know what you’re talking about,” Rafael says, out of breath. He closes his eyes as Sonny traces his gun from his side to his chin, passing over his sternum. He finds this weirdly arousing. But decides to keep the comment to himself. Wouldn’t do him any favors. 

Sonny stares at him, fire on his blue eyes, “I swear on my mother’s grave, Rafael,” he says through clenched teeth, lifting Rafael’s chin with the barrel of his gun. When Rafael looks back to the fire on his eyes, he realizes he’ll kill him. And fear takes over him, for the first time since he started this entire thing. 

“I… don’t… understand,” Rafael says, a tear escaping his eye. This man might really kill him. And he couldn’t have predict what would happen next, “if you’re gonna shoot me,” he says, intently looking at Sonny, defeat clear on his eyes, “do it,” 

Sonny doesn’t take his gun off Rafael’s chin, but his grip isn’t so steady anymore, “It’s not you,” he says, a defeated tone in his voice, “is it?” he lowers the gun, and Rafael allows himself to breath after a loud gasp. 

Sonny puts his hands on his head, still holding his gun, “Do you,” Rafael clears his throat, “was that a move?” he smirks, but it comes out weak.

“I’m so sorry, Rafael,” Sonny says, and his eyes confirm he truly is.

“It’s…” he runs a hand over his throat, the heavy weight of the gun still lingering, “it’s fine,” he gives him a quivering smile.

Sonny rubs his eyes with the heels of his palms, still holding the gun. Upon realizing he still has it on him, he puts it to the side, unloading it, and falls into the couch, sighing. “Sorry.”

“Hey,” Rafael approaches him cautiously, “it’s okay,” he puts a hand on Sonny’s shoulder and gives it a small squeeze. 

Sonny looks up to him, his hair in disarray and his eyes showing his regret. Rafael wants to hold him and protect him, even when he just held him at literal gunpoint. He sits down next to him as he rubs circles with his thumb on Sonny’s shoulder. 

“Really,” Sonny says, after collecting himself, “I don’t… I don’t just point this thing,” he points at the gun with disgust on his face, “at every dinner date I have,”

Rafael laughs, regardless of the situation, “I hope you don’t, it’s a bold move,” 

Sonny shrugs, “Rita just… said something about you and it got to me,”

Rafael shrugs, “She was weary of a latino man randomly appearing into your life?” he smiles, “I get that a lot,”

“She thinks,” Sonny laughs dryly, “she thinks you’re trying to seduce me,”

Rafael’s heart races, “And what if I were?” he says, and his lips stay in a pout, as he observes Sonny with his tired green eyes.

“Are you?” Sonny asks, raising his eyebrows, staring at Rafael’s lips. He just shrugs.  
Sonny then leans in, closing the gap between them, his hand on Rafael’s nape. His lips touch the other man’s, and for a moment, the rest of the world ceases to exist. Sonny doesn’t get any answers out of it, just more questions, like: _what if I take this further?_   
But before he can explore this possibility, Rafael pushes him off softly. He stares at him, his eyes wide and full of confusion.

“What?” Sonny asks.

Rafael turns his eyes to the gun on the coffee table.

“Oh,” Sonny says, looking at the gun as if he forgot that entire exchange, “I won’t whip out my gun on you again,” he tries to get back to working on Rafael’s lips, but the other man pulls away.

“What if I’m into that?” he asks, a smirk forming on his lips. 

Sonny chuckles at the comment and pulls him back to him, shrugging off his jacket and holsters as Rafael does the same. He lets Rafael’s beard graze against his skin, and it’s a fantastic feeling, like a door that’s been locked for too long finally opening. Rafael licks Sonny’s lower lip, and Sonny moans, allowing Rafael’s tongue into his mouth. Pure bliss.

Rafael starts unbuttoning his shirt, momentarily parting away from Sonny, and he follows suit.

“Sonny,” Rafael says when the other man attempts to dive into his mouth again, “Do you want this?” 

Sonny stares at him, and he’s entrapped by those deep green eyes. He could get lost in them, in that moment it all comes clear to him: Yes. He wants it all. He wants to continue kissing Rafael. And he wants whatever comes after it. Whatever this means about his sexuality, he can think about it later. For now, his mind is focused on this mysterious, kind man. 

“Yeah,” he says, carefully taking off Rafael’s glasses and placing them next to his gun, “yeah, I do.”

He cups Rafael’s face, entrance by the feel of facial hair against his cheek. He then moves his hands to his shirt and completely discards Rafael’s, then his own. 

Rafael pins him on the couch as they continue licking into each other’s mouths. Sonny is used to being the one on top. But the feeling of letting go goes well with him at this moment. 

They continue at each other’s mouths until their lips are sore, after some deep kisses in interval, Sonny holds Rafael’s face with his long hands. 

“I’ve never done anything with a guy,” he says at once. Rafael considers this, and he looks beautiful with kiss bruised lips and a dazed look on his face.

“I’ll assume you’ve received a blowjob?” he says, Sonny takes a sharp breath, thrills going down his spine, “It’s a starting point.”

Sonny nods, “It is,” he wonders how different a blowjob from a guy will feel as Rafael expertly undoes his belt, with Sonny still on his back. 

“Do you need me to stand up?” he says, feeling a bit embarrassed. 

Rafael just rolls his eyes, “Are you sure you’ve received a blowjob?” he teases. 

Sonny blushes all the way down to his chest, making Rafael chuckle as he pulls his pants and underwear down, throwing them to the side as Sonny pushes his shoes away. 

Rafael admires Sonny’s now fully naked body, exploring it with his hands. Sonny shivers at the touch. Welcoming the feeling of rougher hands on his skin. He has never had a partner really admire his body; not even his wife. This is new and exciting. He’s already half hard from making out. And Rafael begins kissing his neck, making his back arch.

“Eager, aren’t you?” Rafael teases, as he traces kisses all the way down to Sonny’s sternum, 

“I love your body,” Sonny moans loudly at this, making Rafael smile harder. 

“Just do it,” Sonny pleads, his dick now fully hard.

Rafael hurries down with his path of kisses when he reaches Sonny’s crotch and traces the pubes framing the other man’s length with his finger. He then kisses the base of his dick, making him squirm. He smiles and takes the head on his mouth, he then proceeds to take it all in, excited and ready to please Sonny, while also partaking pleasure in the act. Sonny thrusts his hips forward, and Rafael absolutely loves it. He takes a deep breath, and then licks it a few times before sucking it again, moaning into it. Sonny feels like he’s going insane, holding onto Rafael’s head like it’s his lifeline. This blowjob feels very different from all the others he’s ever received; Rafael truly understands how to please a man and he’s not scared of anything he’s doing being too for Sonny. And the feel of his beard rubbing against his tights just adds an extra sensory feeling Sonny would’ve never expected to feel this good.

He feels a pit of hotness on his stomach, pulling him back to reality, he doesn’t know what proceeds, so he does what he does with woman lovers: Warn them so they can avoid his load. 

“Um, Raf,” he says, panting, Rafael hums, “I’m gonna… come,” Rafael smiles and, to Sonny’s surprise, swallows his length once again,, so he tugs on his hair to make Raf look at him, his dick still on his mouth, it’s a view to die for, “God,” he says under his breath, “aren’t you gonna, uh...” Rafael knits his eyebrows together, parting from his dick.

“I’m gonna swallow,” he explains, Sonny widens his eyes, and nods as Rafael introduces his dick in his mouth again.

He comes frantically, and Rafael doesn’t make an effort to get all of it, some of it ending on his face. Sonny feels like he’ll pass out when he sees him.  
“Well,” Rafael says, resting his head on Sonny’s chest, and cleaning his face with the back of his hand, “was that good?”

Sonny takes deep breaths before answering “That’s an understatement,” he proceeds to try to stand up to return the favor, but Rafael places a firm hand on his chest. He stares at him in confusion. 

“You want to do the same, don’t you?” he says, easing his pressure on Sonny’s chest. Sonny nods, “Well, you’ve never given a blowjob, and I don’t particularly feel like getting bit. So,”

“I’m not gonna let you get me off if I don’t get to do the same,” Sonny says, he kisses Rafael passionately, inadvertently tasting himself _that’s new_. 

Rafael undoes his own belt and guides Sonny’s hands to his bulge. Sonny gasps upon touching it, feeling it hard as a rock and wondering just how big it could be. 

“I’m going to go ahead and assume you’ve jerked yourself off. Yes?” Rafael says, Sonny nods, “Do what you’d do on yourself to me, would you?” he kisses Sonny while he undoes his pants and throws them off along with his shoes, leaving only his boxers on, Sonny shoves his hand down them, while Rafael kisses his neck, and he can only think how different this cock feels from his own. He moves it so it escapes the restraint, and he admires it, dazed until Rafael looks at him in confusion.

“Something wrong?” he asks against Sonny’s jawline, placing a kiss on it.

“It’s just… different,” Sonny says, giving it a temptive jerk. Rafael laughs, and kisses Sonny’s neck.

“I get that plenty,” he moves himself so he can kiss Sonny’s mouth, moaning into his mouth as Sonny jerks him off. They desperately go at each other, Sonny feeling confident enough about his handjob techniques, and after some minutes, Rafael shoots his load. Sonny admires Rafael’s face as he comes. Closed eyes and open mouth. 

Yeah, he could get used to this.

——————

They stay cuddled up together for a while, Rafael resting his head on Sonny’s chest. Sonny with his arm wrapped around Rafael. 

“When did you know?” Sonny asks, his tone suggesting he’s been planning this question for a while now. Rafael looks up to see him.

“What?” 

“That you liked men, I guess,” Sonny shrugs.

“Oh,” Rafael goes back to Sonny’s pectoral, “since always, I guess,” he takes Sonny’s hand and kisses it. 

Sonny nods, “This is all new,” he pinches the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Rafael hums. 

They stay in a comfortable silence.

——————

At 12 AM, Sonny jolts awake, waking up Rafael in the process.

“Shit, sorry,” he says as Rafael groans, “I just… can’t stay,”

Rafael blinks several times before reaching for his glasses. 

“Why?” he asks when he can see Sonny clearly.

“I have to walk my kid to the bus stop,” he looks for his discarded clothes and grabs his boxers, standing to put them on.

“I mean,” Rafael checks the time, “there’s still time for that, you could head home at 4… or 5… even 6 and be on time,” he gently pats the couch as Sonny buttons up his shirt. He bites his bottom lip, looking at the scruffy man in front of him, unable to resist the pull of his eyes.

“Okay,” he says, unbuttoning his shirt and tossing it, “I’ll stay,” 

Rafael smiles as Sonny happily wraps him on his arms once again.

——————

**Mike/Athens**

Gerardo and Mike go at it hot and heavy, ready to discard their bothersome jumpsuits. When suddenly, the door opens. They immediately part away from each other.

Ruben looks from Gerardo to Mike, and vice versa, then shakes his head, “They’re escaping,”

“What now?” Mike asks, zipping his jumpsuit up and getting his rifle.

“Several hostages just made a run for it,” Ruben urges him outside, and Mike obeys, mouthing a _Stay here_ to Gerardo.

“Why didn’t el Fiscal tell us about this?” he asks as they reunite with Nick and Liv.

“Not a call,” Liv says, anger written all across her face, “not a heads up,” she kicks open one of the doors, pointing her rifle, “and he’s not even picking up now,”

Mike draws his eyebrows together, clutching his rifle as they continue to run towards the basement, “That doesn’t sound like him,”

“It doesn’t,” Amanda says, appearing out of the door they were heading towards, “they’re gone,”

Nick hits a wall with the butt of her rifle, then shoots into the air. The rest of the robbers crouch at the sound. 

“Where’s my dad?” Mike asks Amanda. She gives him a compassionate look, his heart sinks to his stomach, “What happened?”

“He was the one watching them,” she says, “I don’t think they killed him, but he got a hit to the head,” 

Mike screams in return. His whole world falling around him.

——————

“Can you explain to me where THE FUCK YOU WERE?” Nick screams into the receiver at Rafael.

“I was busy,” he says, “no need for such hostility,”

“I don’t know if it comes easy to you, being out there, not worrying if you’re about to get shot,” Rafael nearly laughs, thinking back to last night, “but we’re fucking killing ourselves over here, and the least we expect from you is that you inform us when shit like this happens,”

Rafael quickly types away on his computer, unaware of what they’re talking about.

 **12 hostages escape.** Oh… fuck.

“Are you listening?” Liv takes the phone, “Jesus Christ, you fucking asshole, you put us in this situation and you don’t even have an excuse as to why you weren’t watching the security cameras?”

“I–” Rafael starts. But he has nothing. He doesn’t feel like telling them about Sonny. 

“That’s what I thought,” Liv takes a deep breath, “I don’t care what you do, but fix this,”

She hangs up, and Rafael wonders if Sonny is going through something similar at the moment. After all, while this major breakthrough was happening, they were dry humping each other. 

He hits the table, his first rule drilling into his brain: 

**Don’t fall in love.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 3 of the show is out now. I'm watching and I think I'm saying goodbye to this AU after the end of Part 2.... but you all will tell me when time's due ;)
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae
> 
> Also i'm... satisfied with this smut.
> 
> Comment and kudos!


	12. Doce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rafael has to hurt someone.
> 
> Sonny isn't okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (this following part could spoil stuff–)
> 
> CW for suicide attempt, assault is mentioned, and convulsions and hallucinations happen.
> 
> Beware mis amores!

When Sonny walked into the tent, he expected chaos. 

Rita had left him several voice messages – he had turned off the phone when things with Rafael had turned spicy – explaining there had been an escape. He didn’t listen to them until after he had dropped his daughter off at the bus stop. He took a quick shower and headed to the Mint then. 

And sure, there was chaos.

“Where are they?” he asks Rita, she points at one of the tables with her Starbucks cup. He sighs and heads their way, but Rita stops him, her long acrylic nails digging into his skin.

“Where were you last night?” she asks, dead serious, Sonny opens his mouth, “God, really?” 

“Rita, it’s not him,” he says, and he tries to wriggle out of her death grip. “I’m an inspector, I know when not to trust people.”

She gives him a serious look, and he rubs his eyes, “okay, maybe not,” he says, “but I have no reason to suspect Rafael, so I’m not going to,” Rita lets him go.

“Whatever you say, Sonny,” she says, clearly annoyed.

“Hi,” Sonny tells the disgruntled men, “I’m Inspector Carisi, you can call me Dominick,” he tells the former hostages. 

They look him up and down, unsure of what he wants them to say, “Could you help us by answering a few questions?” he says, sitting down.

“It’s nice to see you again, inspector,” one of the hostages says. Sonny nods. 

After some questioning, Sonny learns that the hostages were never in contact with someone going by the name “Fiscal”, that they don’t know the identities of the robbers, and could barely even describe their faces, except for “Prague”, the oldest of the bunch; they were only ever in contact with him.

“So you can’t help us any further?” he asks them when they finish talking, they shake their heads.

“Right now, we would just like to get home,” one of them says, the others nod.

“Right,” Sonny says, nodding, “you can go, if you have anything else, don’t hesitate to contact us,” 

The hostages start leaving, “And inspector?” one of them turns as he’s about to exit the tent. Sonny turns to him, “we saw how you chose Allison over us. Bad move,” he looks at Sonny with sad, angry eyes, “just so you know,” and with that sour note, he exits. 

Sonny puts his head on his palms, feeling panic raising up. He has fucked up more times in the last two days than in the entirety of his career on the police force. He didn’t even commit these many mistakes as a rookie handing out parking tickets. 

He exits the tent, hyperventilating, and he feels like he’s lost control of his body, because next thing, he’s crossing the marked perimeter and heading towards the mint.

Through the window, he sees one of the robbers pointing his rifle towards him. He doesn’t know who it is. He can barely see him. His eyes blur everything he tries to focus on, and he feels like kneeling down and letting either his own people or the robbers take him out. 

Red dots point to him, and he can’t really begin to care. Until someone with sharp nails tugs him away from the scene.

——————

__

Months ago

Nick and Rafael had history prior to the Heist.

Two poor Cuban kids, living in what most would regard as the worst neighborhood in Madrid. 

It was just destiny.

So when Rafael called Nick, asking for help to do the biggest heist in history, Nick immediately said yes. Rafael had always been the sharpest kid in the room, and it later turned into him being the most brilliant person anywhere he went.

Nick trusted him with his entire life. And he made it very clear.

When the heist was just coming together, Nick and Rafael sat down to dine on their own. Drinking expensive wine and talking about the outcomes.

“What happens if you let us down?” Nick asked, contemplating his nearly empty wine glass.

Rafael filled his glass, “What do you mean?”

“What if you end up working for _them?_ ” the amount of disgust on his tone nearly made Rafael wince.

“Rest assured, I would anthrax myself before even considering cooperating,” he lifted his glass as a one sided toast. 

Nick took a sip of wine, “I don’t think you can ‘anthrax’ yourself,” he says contemplatively, “I don’t think that’s a verb,”

Rafael rolled his eyes, “You know what I mean,” 

“Yeah,” Nick smiled, “I do,”

“Anyway,” Rafael fidgeted with his rings, “I won’t let any of you down, I can say as much,” 

Nick nodded, “Then,” he raised his glass, “salud,” they clink glasses.

——————

Mike is panicking. The hit to his father’s head wasn’t lethal. Bless the Lord. But Nick had told him there was the risk of some neurological damage.

“I’ve gotten hit on the face plenty,” Mike said, “and I’m fine!”

Nick gave him a once over, “That’s up for debate, and you were never hit in the back of your head, I’m assuming,” 

After that, he nearly attacked Nick for his suggestion. So he was banned from seeing his father, Amanda taking the responsibility of taking care of him. Nick needed to continue on the printer. 

Now Gerardo awkwardly looks at him as he punches the air.

“Are you always violent when you’re angry?” Gerardo asks. 

“I’m not violent,” Mike replies, “that’d suggest I’m using my fists on someone, and I’m just hitting air.” he sits down next to Gerardo, “My father dying would be the worst possible outcome out of all of this,”

“Are you two close?”

Mike shrugs, “He’s always had my back, even when I fuck up, so,” he presses a hand to his chest. Gerardo holds on to it. 

Mike sighs, deciding to open up, “My mom walked away, when I first came out,”

Gerardo does a face, “That sucks,”

“Yeah, well, she really loved her daughter. She hates her son,” he says. Gerardo looks at him in confusion. 

“I’m saying I’m transgender,” Mike says, a snap on his tone, “if you wanna beat me up to a bloody pulp, go ahead,” he opens his arms, “make me feel something,”

Gerardo knits his eyebrows together, “Is that why you’re doing this heist?” he asks, “Surgery?”

Mike shrugs, “Not really, I already went through that,” he exhales dramatically, looking at the opposite wall, “I’m doing this because I got myself involved in some bad business,”

Gerardo nods, after a few minutes he asks another question, “Why did you assume I would beat you up?”

Mike looks at him, a sad expression on his face, “It wouldn’t be the first time someone reacted like that,”

Gerardo just holds his hand, comforting him.

——————

After some hours, Rafael dials Nick again, hoping to make amends.

“Fiscal,” Nick greets him, “Good to know you didn’t forget about us, now,”

Rafael rolls his eyes, “Look, I’ll explain,”

He tells Nick everything he can; how he befriended the inspector in charge of investigating them and how they’ve gotten close. He leaves out the part where he’s utterly in love with him, he doesn’t want Nick knowing just how fucked they might be. He just mentions they slept together. Nick scoffs at the entire story. 

“Maybe you need to throw him off his game,” Nick suggests, “and I don’t mean with your dick alone,”

“Any suggestions then?” Rafael asks, blowing air through clenched teeth. 

“Hurt someone he loves,” Nick says simply, “when I think of my kids, all I can picture is them being mistreated by their mothers, and that never fails to distract me,” 

“I’m not gonna kill anyone, Havanna,” Rafael rubs his left eyelid with his free hand, “are you out of your mind?”

“Why do you jump into murder?” Nick says, exasperated, “Sending her to the hospital would do the trick,”

Rafael bites his lower lip. He hates when Havanna is right. He absolutely hates it. But alas, he is.

Rafael sighs, defeated, “He’s in the tent,” he says, “I’ll go do that,” 

Nick smirks, “Good,” and hangs up. 

Rafael can’t believe what he’s about to do. 

He wishes it didn’t have to come down to this.

——————

Next thing Sonny knows, he’s in the back of an ambulance, a paramedic injecting something into him.

“What happened?” he asks the paramedic. Blinking several times to adjust his eyes. 

The paramedic looks at him, detached, “You tried to kill yourself,” Sonny takes a sharp breath, “don’t worry, you weren’t close to succeeding, we’re just injecting you tranquilizers.”

Sonny processes this, confused. He’s never been suicidal. Even when he was at rock bottom, he knew Alessa needed one sane parent. He feels horrible about his lapse of judgement. He takes out his phone. 

He scrolls his recent calls _Rafael_ , he clicks on ‘Call’. 

Rafael picks up immediately, “Sonny?” 

“Raf,” Sonny says, a small smile forming on his lips after hearing the other man’s voice, “hi,”

“Hi” Sonny could hear Rafael moving around, “what’s up?”

“Well,” Sonny blushes, Rafael has seen a lot of him, and he knows about his vulnerable side, but it’s still hard for him to just say stuff, “I kind of went off the deep end here and I’m being sent home so,” he bites his bottom lip, “could you come pick me up?”

_Fuck. He’ll be home soon._

And what a scene he’ll find. 

Rafael pinches the bridge of his nose, “I’d love to but,” he fumbles with a plastic bag, taking out a small container, “I’m rather busy,”

“Oh,” the disappointment in Sonny’s voice nearly makes Rafael turn on the car and drive to pick him, “well, I’ll Uber, see you,”

As Sonny hangs up on him, he turns to see the other man’s house, a blonde woman by the window. He holds onto the small bottle containing a small dosage of poison; just enough to provoke a seizure. He takes a deep breath and heads in. 

He wonders how much Sonny has told his sister about him. He doesn’t think she would know how he looks. He never takes pictures and Sonny doesn’t seem like the “taking-candids” type. 

He knocks on the door, unsure if his game plan will work at all. 

The woman opens the door, she inspects him from head to toe. He opens his mouth to introduce himself, “You’re Rafael,” she says, he closes his mouth, “come in,” she gets inside and he follows suit.

_Of course she knows what I look like — They’re Italians. Very close. Sonny probably described every last wrinkle of his face to her._

He awkwardly steps in. Kicking his shoes off as she is barefoot too. 

“I’m Bella, if he hasn’t told you. Sonny hasn’t told me much about you,” she says casually, going into the living room, Rafael follows her, “but as soon as I saw you, I could tell,” she plummets into a sofa, “you’re the guy who is making him go soft,” 

Rafael smirks at this, leaning on the doorframe, “I guess, but he’s a guy with a nose piercing, I don’t think he was ever that rigid,”

“Oh,” Bella says, “he got that when he left Petra,” she laughs, “said he was too scared of tattoos,”

Rafael laughs, then decides to put the plan in motion. If he keeps on bonding with Bella, he’ll never get through with it, “can I fix you some water?” 

Bella tilts her head, “sure,” as he walks, he can feel her checking out his ass. 

He’ll never think back on any part of this exchange when he finishes.

——————

Mint

Mike felt dazed. They still don’t know if his father will recover and he’s not feeling hopeful. Things have never looked up for the Dodds'. Everyone in the room is arguing. He grabs his glock and joins them on the other side.

“You finally decided to care?” Havana says with poison in his voice.

“Give him a break, his father is hurt,” Atlanta says.

“Oh, now the addict is trying to preach to me?” he snarks back. Atlanta widens her eyes and points her gun at him. In a masterful move, Havana gets his out and points it at her. Mike points it at Nick, and in return, Liv points it at him. 

Everyone is silent. 

“Can we do this in a way that doesn’t involve us blowing our brains out?” Mike says.

“I don’t know,” Atlanta replies, pressing her gun against Nick’s sternum, “I’m kinda liking the idea of only sharing the bounty between six people,” 

“Charming, Atlanta,” says Liv, “now, put the gun down, Athens.”

He complies. And Liv secures her gun and saves it, “If we start killing each other, we will lose control,”

Atlanta and Havana put their weapons down and save them in their jumpsuits.

“Let’s get back to work,” Liv says, “we can work on group therapy when we’re in Las Bahamas,”

——————

Rafael walks the hallway into the living room carrying two glasses of water. One of them with enough venom drops to provoke a seizure, the other with enough to show up in test results. That way, if he gets caught, the tap water will be easy to blame.

He enters the room, but Bella isn’t there. He leaves the glasses on the coffee table. He hears some guttural noises coming from another room _Bella?_ He was gone for two minutes at most, what happened? 

He follows the screams into a bedroom. He finds Bella on the floor, grappling with her neck. There’s nothing visibly hurting her, and yet the way she thrashes suggests otherwise. 

“Bella!” Rafael screams, he leans down to stop her from scratching her neck raw, but she just screams louder, “What do I do?!” there’s absolute terror in his eyes – he didn’t even give her the water and yet there she is, convulsing, her eyes rolled back so hard there’s only whites. 

“P…” she tries to form a word, but it sounds like her throat is closed.

“Allergies?” Rafael asks, looking around the room for an EpiPen. Bella shakes her head as much as she can while still scratching her neck.

“Pills” she says, barely audible.

He runs off to the kitchen, frantically searching for them. He finds several, so he grabs them all and runs back to Bella, “Which one?” Bella points at one of the bottles, he pops it open and hands it to her, she swallows it. She stops scraping her neck but it takes a longer time for her to stop seizing.

Rafael sits next to her on the ground, stunned. Then he realizes…

She had done his job for him, she must have some sort of illness that provokes her seizures. He could’ve left her there for Sonny to find, and he wouldn’t be responsible whatsoever.

But he always knew he wouldn’t do it. 

He wouldn’t. Because he could never hurt Sonny that way. He can’t, and he doesn’t want to. 

He truly is fucked.

——————

Sonny opens the door to his house. He feels drowsy. The Uber driver wanted to make too much small talk, and he was falling asleep in the backseat.

He hears Bella talking, and he’s confused. Is Alessa here? She’s supposed to be with her mom today. There’s no way Theresa or Gina are there, either. They’d tell him if they were in the country. 

When he enters the kitchen, he can’t believe his eyes.

“Rafael?” he says.

Rafael turns from the chair he’s sitting in to face him, “Sonny! Hey, remember how I said I was busy?” he smiles with ease, “Well, I wanted to surprise you when you came home,”

Sonny nods, too dazed to fully understand. He sits down on the free chair of the small breakfast table.

“Rafael is such a great guy,” Bella says, sipping her tea, “I had an attack, and he reacted so fast,”

Sonny perks up at this, “You had an attack?”

“Yeah, felt like insects were crawling on my neck,” she makes a dismissive hand gesture, “took some pills and I’m brand new,”

“Shouldn't you call the doctor?” Sonny says, a serious look on his face.

“On Monday, Sonny,” she reaches for his hand and squeezes it.

Sonny nods. His eyelids feeling heavy. 

“So,” Bella says after a few seconds of silence, Rafael drinks his tea, “Are you ready to admit you’re gay, Sonny?” Rafael nearly spits his drink. Is she always like this?

Sonny sighs, “I think I still like women, Bella,”

“Bi?” Rafael offers.

Sonny rubs his temples, he’ll fall asleep on the spot if they don’t leave him alone, “There’s too much going on, give me a break,” he sounds too harsh, he sighs and puts his hand on top of Rafael’s, “I just know I like you, Rafael,”

Rafael smiles softly.

“Hey, when this is all over we could go over to the country and enjoy the sun…” Bella suggests. Sonny’s eyes widen. He abruptly stands up, tumbling a bit, Rafael tries to steady him, but he runs out the kitchen.

Sonny unlocks his phone and calls Rita.

“They planned the heist somewhere,” he says before she can even greet him.

“With your brilliant discoveries I’m surprised you haven’t gotten an Inspector of the Year award,” she snarks back.

Sonny rolls his eyes, “It was probably in the country, they needed a place to practice shooting,” he paces from one wall of the hallway to another. He doesn’t notice Rafael lurking, “search for any noise complaints in Toledo, talk to neighbors, I’m indisposed, but I’ll be up and running by tomorrow,”

“Sure, golden boy,” she hangs up.

He enters his room and strips himself down to his underwear.

Rafael knocks on his open door.

“I need to sleep,” Sonny says, all his energy drained from the phone call. 

Rafael shuffles his weight and bites his bottom lip, “Can I stay?”

Sonny blinks multiple times, taken aback by such a sweet suggestion, “Yeah… I’d like that,”

And thus, Sonny sleeps cuddled up next to Rafael.

——————

**5 months prior**

“So,” Liv says after she finishes her salad, “how did you come up with this entire thing?”

Rafael gives her a half smirk, “You know how I was born in Cuba?”

Olivia tilts her head, “I didn’t know that,”

“Yeah,” Rafael keeps writing something down, “Let’s just say my mother was kind of– very– obsessed with money,”

“Is she still alive?” Liv asks.

Rafael shrugs, “Wouldn’t know,” he says, “maybe,”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” 

“I ran away from my house in Barcelona as soon as I turned 18 – and I never looked back,” he says simply, still fixated on his writing, “To answer your question– she once mentioned it’d be incredible if someone stole from the mint. It stuck with me, and– well, I’ve never been one to steal from the people. So I said: why not steal from the government? Steal their time, their resources… I became obsessed with the idea– much like my mother was obsessed with money.” he bites the inside of his cheek, “growing up in an authoritarian state… It creates something inside you, an obsession of sorts.”

Liv nods, then she raises her glass to Rafael, “To freedom, then,”

Rafael finally drops his pen on the paper to favor his glass of scotch, “And to screwing the government,” they clink their glasses.

——————

Rafael wakes up while Sonny is still blissfully sleeping, it’s eight in the morning. He hasn’t contacted his team in a while. But at the moment, all he can concentrate on is the man sleeping next to him. He looks so peaceful. And Rafael hates himself for what he’s doing to him; he’s bringing him so much stress, so much worry.

And he doesn’t even know it’s him. 

A ringtone on Sonny’s side interrupts his thoughts. Sonny wakes up and answer, his voice hoarse, “Hi?” he rubs his eyes, “Oh? Send me the location, I’ll be there in 30,” he hangs up and looks around, he isn’t fazed from seeing Rafael at all, “Could you drive me to Toledo? I’m still feeling queasy,” 

“Sure,” Rafael says, knowing exactly where they’re headed even before Sonny mutters the address. 

All according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was how the series part 1 ended and I had to wait 2 months to know what'd happen next.
> 
> Lucky for you I will not make u wait two months. It'll be a week and a half at most! I just have to edit ch 13 to 16 and write the final 5 chapters. 
> 
> This one goes out for my bf whose bday is today!
> 
> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae
> 
> S/O to snnycarisi for betaing x


	13. Trece

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hideout stuff, and Mike makes a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, you know how i said it'd only be a week and a half? Life got in the way, but here it is!
> 
> No warnings needed. I think. Implied abuse?

At eight forty five, they arrive to the hideout at Toledo. 

“Wait inside the car,” Sonny tells him as he slams the door. Rafael relaxes.

He knows every last thing that’s inside the hideout.

He just wonders how long it’ll take Sonny to figure out it’s all useless.

——————

“So all of this,” Sonny says, over exaggerating with his hands, “All the DNA we’ve found so far, it belongs to people who are _already_ imprisoned?”

The forensics guy nods. Sonny bites his bottom lip, “Then this is a dead end,”

“What?” he says.

“Oh,” Sonny says, realizing telling that to someone who just spent their entire morning analyzing DNA isn’t the best way to go, “these robbers love stealing time as much as stealing money,” he considers, “so they led us here. So we’d believe this is a loose end from their part but… It’s really just another distraction.”

The other man blinks at this, Sonny leaves him alone dwelling on this. As he exits the house, he scrolls through his Apple Watch, looking for a contact he had wanted to delete long ago, but couldn’t. He takes a deep breath and dials it. 

She answers on the third ring, causing Sonny a visceral reaction. 

“Hi, Petra, yeah, I need… your help,”

–—————

Sonny leans on the sandstone wall and takes a sip off his water bottle, “Do you think I should quit?” he asks Rafael.

Rafael stares at him, “Why’d you quit?”

“I think someone else might manage this better,” he shrugs, “besides, the leader kind of has something for me, and I don’t know… perhaps it’d be better if I stepped down,”

“Is that what you want?” Rafael asks.

“It’s not really about what I want,” he swings his bottle again, some water dropping down on his shirt. Rafael follows the follows the water drops as it trais down the man’s chest, “It’s about what’s best,”

“And you think that that is the best?”

Sonny purses his lips, “The man I talk to is weird,” Rafael suppresses a laughter at this – _my persona works..._ he thinks, “on our first talk he asked me what I was wearing,” 

“That’s odd,” Rafael agrees– _I have no right…_ he reproaches himself.

“Yeah,” Sonny says, he finishes drinking his water, “see that car?” he points with the now empty plastic bottle, Rafael nods, “that’s my ex wife,”

Rafael widens his eyes, “Why is she here?”

“She’s the best at forensics,” Sonny throws the bottle away, “as much as I hate her, I need her here,”

An average, blonde lady approaches her, “Dominick,” she says, kissing Sonny on both his cheeks, “isn’t it always a delight?”

“No, it’s not,” Sonny says, an over exaggerated, fake, smile plastered on his lips, “Petra,” he signals at Rafael, who comes closer, “this is Rafael, he’s, um,” he considers what he’s about to say, both Petra and Rafael look at him, “he’s my lover,” he finally says. 

Rafael shakes Petra’s hand.

“You swinging that way now?” Petra asks, Rafael can tell she doesn’t actually care, she just wants to hit Sonny where it hurts; Rafael’s father was much the same. He feels bile raising on his throat. 

Sonny doesn’t answer. He doesn’t feel like explaining himself to his ex–wife, not now, not ever. 

Petra reads the tense atmosphere she created, and she snarls, “Explains a lot,” she says, taking her sunglasses off, revealing piercing gray eyes, she looks at Sonny “happy for you,”

She walks off, Rafael blinks several times. Unsure of what to make of this exchange, he turns to see how Sonny is taking it, “Yeah,” Sonny says, “she’s always like that,” he places a hand on Rafael’s shoulder, then enters the hideout.

–—————

**Mike/Athens**

“Have you ever heard of Stockholm syndrome?” Mike says as soon as he enters the vault.

“Yeah?” Gerardo replies.

“That’s what you have,”

“I think I’d know if I did,”

“No,” Mike says firmly, “that’s the thing– you wouldn’t know.” 

“You never told me you were a psychiatrist,” Gerardo teases.

“I’m serious,”

“You’ve never forced me to do anything,” 

“Still,”

Gerardo considers this for a moment, “You’re breaking this off?”

“Gerardo,” Mike says carefully, “Look at me, what am I? I’m a criminal, I have you here against your will,”

Gerardo stays quiet.

“This wouldn’t work outside, so it can’t work here,” Mike says, exiting the vault.

He has to focus on his father anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: rafaelbarbae
> 
> Please comment and kudos


	14. Catorce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rafael needs a ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of abuse and some gun violence

Rita approaches them rapidly in her heeled boots, Sonny wonders how she’s not sinking on the grass, “Was that Petra, Dominick?” she says, taking off her designer shades. Her eyes pierce right through him. He can tell she hates him for this. 

He hates himself too.

“Yeah,” he says, “yeah, I needed her,”

Rita sighs, “You had to marry a forensics cop, didn’t you?” she puts her shades back on and b-lines to the snack table, grabbing a handful of pretzels. 

Sonny turns to face Rafael, “I’m sorry about… All of this,” he says. 

“It’s okay,” he checks his watch, “I should leave though, I’ll try catching a bus,” 

“No,” Sonny says serious, “I’m sure someone here can drive you,”

“I’d hate to be an inconvenience…” 

“Don’t say that,” Sonny says, then he walks to one of the tables grabs a megaphone, “is anyone on their way to Madrid?”

No one replies at first. Then a manicured hand raises.

“I am,” Petra says, her red lips smiling, Rafael would rather walk all the way to Madrid.

Sonny seems to be thinking the same, but he shakes his head, “Would you be that kind, Petra?” he asks, Rafael wonders if Sonny hates the glimmer on his eyes whenever he says her name as much as he does. 

Petra scrutinizes her ex husband. Then gives him a smile, “Nothing would make me happier,” Rafael would rather walk for 15 hours straight, but he needs to call his team before Nick mistakenly assumes he’s been apprehended.

Rafael hugs Sonny one armed, whispers a quick goodbye, then climbs into the passenger seat.

–—————

“So, what do you do for a living, Rafael?” Petra asks. Rafael is thankful he doesn’t have to look her in the eyes. He concentrates on the view by the side.

“I’m a food critic,” he says drily.

“Any recommendations?” she jokes, Rafael only hums in response, “Anyway,” she says, her voice sounding overly cheerful, Rafael considers rolling down the window to dry heave, “I’m so glad Dom finally got back into dating,” Rafael grits his teeth, “he’s unstable– but he’s a sweet guy,” Rafael hums, knowing that if he dignifies her bullshit with words, he might explode in rage.

“You’re too handsome for him,” she says, “I always knew he’d turn gay– he’s always been too soft,” 

_Why do people keep saying that?_

“I mean, no offense to you, but I know Dominick and–”

“Oh my God, shut the fuck up.” Rafael says, now looking at her.

Petra stays quiet a few moments, then she sneers, “Excuse me?”

“You don’t care about Dominick,” Rafael says, “if you did, you wouldn’t have beaten his spirit down to pulp, but you did, so,” he purses his lips, “you fucking ruined him and you rejoice on it,”

Petra tilts her head, still looking at the road ahead, “Really?” she huffs a laugh.

“You know the truth, even if you play coy,” Rafael says, “you’ll rot in hell for what you did,” he then rests into the seat. 

Petra then huffs a humorless laugh, and drives to the side, Rafael rolls his eyes. He doesn’t regret saying anything he did, and if she shoots him for this. Well… he knew the risk. She parks the car, “Get out,” she commands, grabbing her gun.

“You’re gonna shoot me?” he asks as he steps out.

Petra stares at him, “Cold blooded murder?” she laughs, “I don’t know what stories Dominick has told you about me, but that seems a bit far off, even for him,”

Rafael looks around him. Even with all his training, he couldn’t take on this woman. She’s a cop, after all, and taller than him.

“What’s your last name?” she asks. Rafael raises one eyebrow.

“Barba,” he says.

“Oh, very funny,” she says. He continues looking at her dead serious, “you’ve got to be kidding me–,” he shrugs.

“Didn’t choose it,”

She turns him around and pushes him against the car, “Rafael Barba, you’re under arrest for verbal abuse to a police officer,”

Rafael scoffs, “Please, that wouldn’t hold up in any court in Spain,”

“I don’t think you know who I am, Rafael,”

“And I know my rights, Petra,” he says, spitting out her name, “I studied law,”

“Oh, I’m sure you did,” she shoves him into the back of her car.

Rafael realizes he has fucked up when he sees the time on the radio watch.

It’s been nearly 24 hours since he last spoke with his team.

–—————

****

Amanda/Atlanta

Amanda is there when Prague finally wakes up.

“Hi,” she says softly, Prague blinking several times, she points her phone’s flash at his eyes.

“Stop that,” he says, annoyed.

“Oh, you can talk,” she says, she hates having this task, she never particularly cared for Prague. But she knows they need him to survive.

“Of course I can,” he looks around, “where’s my son?”

“He nearly beat Havana, so,” she says, bored, “he can’t see you,” she considers, “or maybe he can now that you’re awake,” she picks up a magazine on the side of the couch. 

“What happened?” he asks.

“You got hit in the head,” she flips through the magazine, “we’re not doctors so,” she shrugs, “we did our best,”

“Oh, that’s so reassuring,” he says, rolling his eyes.

Amanda closes the magazine and stands up, “Well, now that you’re awake I don’t have to tend to you, so,” she smiles, “good luck,”

“Weren’t you with me when the hostages were escaping?” he asks. Amanda stops dead on her tracks. She hoped he had forgotten how she froze up when things got real. Too scared of dying and never seeing Jessie again. Prague is also a parent. He would understand.

“Yes,” she says, backtracking so she’s facing Prague, “I was.”

He raises an eyebrow, “Huh,”

She sighs, “Look, I have a kid and–”

“I get it,” he interrupts her, “I do,”

She stares at him, “Do you?”

“I would’ve done the same, think about Mi–Athens first,” he nods, “I forgive you,” 

She offers him a tender smile, “Thank you,”

“We are a team,” he says, “but we are human too,” he shrugs, “we are selfish. It’s fine,”

–—————

Rafael feels numb as he’s dragged by Petra into a Madrid precinct.

He’s quite sure the ride to this place could be considered torture under Spaniard law. Petra had talked and talked about her relationship with Sonny– she spoke so low about him that Rafael considered jumping out of the moving car. The way she talked about him took him back to his own abuse; his father belittling him and twisting the truth into what he wanted. 

He gets his fingerprints taken, and he sends a silent prayer to whatever God will listen that the small poison container he nearly used on Bella is empty when they take his belongings. 

He remains silent during the whole ordeal. He had anticipated getting arrested, sure. But he never thought it’d be for standing up for the man investigating them. 

As he sits on a bench in the dark precinct. He wonders how long they’ll keep him there. He hasn’t done anything, not really. But clearly, Petra has pull. 

So he waits.

–—————

“Havana” Paris calls over, Nick pauses his inspection of a bill to pay attention to her, “any idea of why El Fiscal hasn’t called us in 23 hours?” 

Nick gulps, “Uh, he might have needed to run some errands,” he says. Olivia tilts her head.

“What kind of errands, Havana?” she asks. He feels scrutinized under her intense look.

He bulges in, “He was going to poison the inspector’s sister, okay?” he says. 

She nods, pursing her lips, “And whose idea was that?”

_Shit._

“Mine,” he says, unable to lie under her eye. 

“And you knew,” she says, anger rising up on her voice, “that he could get caught, by none other than the inspector, trying to kill his sister?”

Nick stays quiet.

“What the absolute fuck is your problem?” she grabs her gun, “Hope you let everyone know we wasted six months of our lives on this,”

“Well, it’s his fault if he decided to _actually_ listen to me–”

Liv shoves her gun into his mouth, “You better shut your pretty face before I blow it out,” she removes it and walks away.

As Nick tries to regain his breath, he wonders if Rafael could actually be so stupid that he’d land himself in jail.

–—————

Sonny is still in the hideout, drinking his fourth cup of shitty instant coffee, when a call from a blocked number reaches his phone. For a moment, he thinks it must be El Fiscal, but he shakes it off. He has only ever called him to the tent number. 

After four rings, he picks up, “Hello?” 

“Inspector,” it’s the voice of the girl he knows as Atlanta.

“Yes?”

“Could you really help me see my daughter?”

He puts his cup on a table and crosses his arms, “Uh, we could try to convince a judge, but there’s no guarantee,” Atlanta stays silent, “you’d need to give us something,”

“Like what?”

“El Fiscal’s real name,”

“Fuck if I know,” she says, a bit too defensively.

“Well, then, how about what he looks like?” Sonny asks.

“Green eyes, short,” she says, she licks her lips, “look… I gotta go,”

“Miss Atlanta…” Sonny says, but it’s too late. She has hung up.

–—————

Amanda feels her heart thumping in her chest. Was she really just about to betray everyone, in exchange for… What? A chance?

God, she is worse than she thought she could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae
> 
> Please comment!!!


	15. Quince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for 1k hits??? oh my god!!!
> 
> TW: domestic abuse

The officer throws Rafael into a cheap plastic chair drilled into the wall. 

He relishes on the feeling of the tight handcuffs on his wrists. He presses harder so his skin turns purple. He smirks at the view, then turns to watch the news in front of him. His masterpiece, the heist, was being covered. He keeps his smirk on. The reporter seemed to be lean on mudding their intentions. But it was clear they had no idea what they were talking about.

“They’re going to wind up dead,” an awful-smelling drunk man next to him says.

“It’s not over yet,” Rafael says, not bothering ungluing his eyes from the TV, too entranced on the glory of his own creation.

“I’ll tell you how it ends; a bullet in the head for each and everyone of them,” the man says.

Rafael rolls his eyes. A lady officer appears out of the corner, “Excuse me,” Rafael says, she turns to see him, a bored expression on her face, “I would like to use my call,” 

The woman rolls her eyes, but leads Rafael into the phone, “Could I have my phone, though? I don’t know the number by heart,” she scoffs, but goes and gets his phone, handing it to him.

With his hands still handcuffed, Rafael scrolls for Sonny’s number. He finds it and starts dialing it from the precinct’s phone. 

He doesn’t answer as soon as he would, probably since he’s not calling from his cell.

After four rings, he picks up, “Inspector Dominick Carisi Jr.” he responds, all business. Rafael can’t help but smile a little.

“Sonny,” he says.

“Raf! What’s up! Why aren’t you calling from your cell?” Sonny audibly stands up. Rafael wonders if he’s interrupting something. But he doesn’t care enough to ask. 

“Uh, I was… arrested.” Rafael explains awkwardly.

“Wh– for what?” 

“I might have gotten in an argument with your ex–wife,” 

Sonny stays quiet for a moment, and Rafael wonders if he’s gonna yell at him over it, “What precinct?” 

“Uh, the 16th,” Rafael says, unable to tell how exactly Sonny is reacting to this.

“That’s Petra’s– I’m on my way,” Sonny says.

“Thank you,” Rafael says. Sonny hangs up and Rafael lets out a breath.

He wonders if this will change the way Sonny sees him. But he doesn’t regret what he said to Petra.

He knows he’s completely and utterly fucked over by this man. He sighs as he plummets down on the uncomfortable chair.

–—————

“Is it true?” Amanda says, storming in on Nick’s working place.

“What?” he says, not bothering to face her as he writes a new serial number on the board.

“You really got el Fiscal into trouble?” she slaps the marker out of his hand. He turns annoyed to face her.

“He put himself in that position,” he picks up the marker, “he knew the risk,”

“Oh, so now the whole plan is fucked,” she throws everything on Nick’s table to the floor, “No wonder your baby mamas won’t let you see your kids, you can’t even stick to a simple plan.” _She’s not better than him._

Nick’s face transforms from annoyed to furious, “And what’s your great plan, huh?” he snaps, “You want to see your daughter, who can’t even tell you’re her mother?”

“Oh, like you are such a good father,”

“I’m not,” he says firmly, “I’ve long since accepted I’m a garbage father, just like my father was.” he gets up on her face, “When are you gonna admit you suck as a mother, Atlanta? You brought your toddler to a gambling night, an illegal one, too,” he places a hand between her collarbones, “You don’t deserve to see your daughter again.”

Amanda is speechless. 

“Now let me work,” he sits down on his chair.

She leaves. She knows he’s right.

–—————

Sonny arrives at the precinct and makes a b–line towards Rafael. 

“Are you okay?” he says crouched to eye level with his lover, caressing his cuffed wrists. 

Rafael groans, “Have been better,”

Sonny stands up and lifts his badge in the air, “Inspector Sonny Carisi, someone uncuff this man immediately,”

An uniform obeys him, and Rafael rubs at the red in his wrists.

“Where’s Petra?” Sonny asks the uniform. He points towards her office. He storms in.

“You’re so fucking pathetic” he says even before he finishes entering the room.

“Oh, I’m the pathetic one here, Dominick?” Petra says, dropping the papers she was holding into her desk.

“Stop fucking calling me that,”

She stays quiet for a moment, “Just go fuck that guy, hopefully your middle life crisis goes smoothly.” she rearranges some papers, “He says he studied law, but he works as a food critic? He’s weird, you’re perfect for each other,” she rolls her eyes, silence fills the room, she sighs, “I’m taking Alessa, Dominick,”

“Why’d you do that?” Sonny says in confusion.

“She doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of… whatever it is you’re going through, I don’t care, but she needs her mother.”

“Well, if her mother wasn’t an abusive piece of sh–” Sonny is interrupted by the back of Petra’s hand connecting with his face. 

They both stay silent for a long time. Sonny’s bottom lip quivers, he bites it so it stops.

“Give me the arrest report you have on my boyfriend, now,” he says, his voice as controlled as ever, “Unless you want me to arrest you for assaulting a police officer,”

Petra rolls his eyes, but hands it to him. He rips it into small pieces. Then exits the room.

“C’mon,” he says, grabbing Rafael’s hand, “let’s leave,”

Rafael decides not to ask why he has an empty look on his eyes. 

If Sonny wants to talk, he will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hurt
> 
> Don't forget to leave kudos if you haven't already! This story has been really hard to put together and it's not receiving much feedback 


	16. Dieciséis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter made me cry while I reread it fair warning.
> 
> So soft úwù
> 
> TW: Implied abuse

After Sonny drops Rafael off at his house, he dials El Fiscal.

As usual, there’s three rings before he answers. This time around, it annoys Sonny.

“Inspe–”

“I talked to Atlanta,” Sonny doesn’t let him finish.

“Huh,” Rafael reclines himself on his chair, _Atlanta had talked to Sonny? Was that why he was so quiet during the ride back? He had been okay up until he talked to Petra…_

“She says you’re short,”

Rafael resists the urge to laugh. She didn’t know his real name– the one Sonny already knows. So she told Sonny about his height. He’ll hand it to her, that’s some way of avoiding further questions.

“Then I’ll assume you’re already outside of my door ready to swat me?” he teases.

Sonny laughs, “Not really, no. You have a loyal team, Fiscal, I’ll give you that,”

Rafael smiles, “Inspector, how did you lose your virginity?”

Sonny nearly chokes on his saliva, “What?”

“Your virginity, how did you lose it?”

“That’s none of your business, Fiscal,” Sonny replies, too irritated.

“C’mon, you never forget your first time. This is my first time in crime, really.”

“So no record?” Sonny asks.

“A thread to pull on from, right?”

“Not really,” Sonny sighs.

Rafael feels the urge to turn off the voice modifier and ask him what’s wrong, to comfort him. To protect him. But he knows that’s idiotic.

“You know,” Sonny says, “the world needs more people like you,”

Rafael’s heart shrinks, was his cover blown? Was that why Sonny acted like that? Had Petra told him? Did Petra know?

“You’re optimistic,” Sonny explains. Rafael lets out a sigh of relief.

“That’s nice of you to say, Inspector,”

“Just call me Dominick,” Sonny says, and hangs up.

Rafael sits perplexed, unable to process why Sonny ended the call with that.

–—————

“What’s gotten into you?” Rita says, “That call was utterly useless,”

Sonny shrugs. Making Rita angrier.

“And asking him to call you by first name? What? Are you two friends now? Have you fallen for his flirting? Jesus Christ, Dominick,” 

Sonny stands up without a word, he takes out his phone and dials Rafael. Rita scoffs and exits the tent. Sonny assumes she’s on her way to vape her not–completely–legal cannabis.

Rafael picks up immediately, “Sonny,” he seems surprised; after all, they just saw each other.

“Raf,” Sonny scratches the back of his neck, “can we see each other tonight?”

“Sure,” Rafael says, “Our usual spot?” he means the cafeteria. Sonny is a bit taken aback; last time they were there, he pointed a gun at Rafael.

“I mean,” he doesn’t know how exactly to word this, “look, I’m sick of sleeping alone,”

“You want me to come over and stay the night?” Rafael says.

“Yeah, I’d love that,” Sonny says, smiling for the first time since he saw Petra.

“You sure this isn’t another stunt to pull a gun on me, Inspector?” Rafael says with a flirty, teasing tone.

Sonny laughs, “No guns, I promise,”

Rafael smiles, thankful he was able to talk to his inspector after the weird talk they just had as robber and cop, “I’ll be there,”

As they hang up, Sonny bites his lips. Wondering what supplies he should buy.

–—————

Rafael and Sonny walk into Sonny’s room, dorky smiles on their faces and holding hands.

They weren’t expecting to find Bella sitting on his bed with Alessa resting her head on her lap. Rafael releases Sonny’s hand out of instinct, but Sonny squeezes it in reassurance and approaches his daughter.

“Ali, why are you up?” he asks, giving her a tight hug.

“I didn’t want to go to bed without seeing you,” she says, immediately yawning afterwards.

“Well you saw me, so,” he boops her nose, she giggles, “it’s time for bed,”

She looks at Rafael, inspecting him from head to toe, “Who is this?”

“Oh this is–” Sonny starts.

“Are you two dating?” she interrupts, tilting her head.

Sonny turns to Rafael, _are they?_ He had told Petra as much. But he wasn’t sure if that was just spite talking for him.

“We are,” Rafael replies. 

“Have you asked him to be your boyfriend?” Alessa asks, raising an eyebrow. Rafael wonders if Sonny taught her about interrogation techniques.

“Not really, but I’d like to,” he looks at Sonny, who just smiles and nods in return.

Rafael has never been happier. He almost wishes the heist wasn’t a thing. He doesn’t want to run away. Not if it means he’ll lose Sonny.

–—————

“What happened earlier?” Rafael asks, as he lays down facing Sonny in his bed.

Sonny lowers his eyes, “Well,” he runs his hand through his cheek, “Petra has never had the best temper,”

Rafael contains his rage, he bites down on his lip, “Was it my fault?”

“With Petra, it’s only her fault,” Sonny says, “what exactly did you do, anyway?” he moves closer to Rafael.

“Well,” Rafael says, biting down a smile of satisfaction, “I told her off for everything she’s done to you, and it must’ve hit a nerve, because she arrested me for it,” he rubs at his wrists, “which will make for an interesting story,”

Sonny looks at him, awestruck, “You stood up for me?” Rafael nods, Sonny kisses him, “God, that’s…” he kisses him deeper, Rafael draws him closer pushing the back of his head.

Sonny pulls at Rafael’s belt, undoing it. Rafael thrusts it forward, so Sonny can feel him on his tight.

“You sure?” Sonny says between kisses.

“Positive,” 

They discard the rest of their clothes, and the night ends with fireworks.

–—————

****

Mike/Athens

“Dad?” Mike says, upon entering the office.

“M–Athens,” William says, standing up a bit too fast. He nearly falls over.

“I’m so happy you’re okay,” Mike hugs him gently.

“Y’know what they say,” William says, sitting down again, “the Dodds are fighters,”

“Don’t say our last name, Dad,” Mike says, looking around to see if anyone heard, “are you sure you’re okay?”

“Hm,” William rubs his head, “yeah, just a headache,”

Mike nods, “Well, I should sleep,” he checks his watch, “I’ll see you later,”

“Bye, kid,” William says, closing his eyes, clearly in pain.

–—————

****

**Hostages**

Gerardo sits next to other hostages. He hasn’t seen anyone except for Mike since he tried stealing the cellphone. So, naturally, they are all curious.

“We thought you were dead,” Cecilia, one of his co–workers says.

“Where were you?” Jesús, his boss, asks.

“In a vault,” he replies dryly.

“Why?” Cecilia asks; Gerardo has always suspected she has a thing for him. The feeling isn’t mutual. 

“I tried to steal,”

“And they didn’t kill you?” Jesús asks.

“Uh,” Gerardo rubs the back of his neck, “they’re against that, apparently,”

“That’s… that’s great,” Jesús says, smiling.

Gerardo turns to him, making a face, “What?”

“I mean if you managed to steal something from them and they didn’t retaliate…”

“What are you suggesting?”

Jesús grins, “You should steal a gun,”

“What? No.”

“It’s our ticket out of here, Gerardo,”

“I don’t want to use a gun,” he replies.

“Fine, you steal it, I’ll use it,” Jesús says, “unless you don’t want to have a job once this is all over,” he shrugs.

Gerardo stares at him, “That’s low,”

“Don’t you have your mom in a care facility?” Jesus says, “those are expensive,”

“Fine,” Gerardo says, “I’ll do it,”

“Take it from Athens,” Cecilia suggests, “he’s always distracted,”

Gerardo narrows his eyes at this. The Athens he knew was everything but distracted, “Is he?”

“Yeah,” Cecilia says, “his mind always seems elsewhere”

Still confused, Gerardo nods.

–—————

Sonny slowly opens his eyes, and upon seeing a sleeping Rafael next to him, smiles. He can’t believe how happy he is around this man. After Petra, he had learned to be weary of people, to the point he closed himself up to any newcomers. He hadn’t slept with anyone since his divorce. Last night, that had changed. He had let Rafael in. And God, did it feel good. He doesn’t care that he is a man as well. He starts considering how he’s going to tell Theresa and Gina. He also thinks of his parents, and how they’d feel about this. He shakes it off. It doesn’t matter; they’re dead. He doesn’t need to taunt his memories of them. They’re gone, it doesn’t matter whether or not they would’ve accepted his new lover.

Rafael wakes up then, his green eyes in full display without his glasses in the way. Sonny basks himself on the beautiful view. Rafael smiles, “What?”

“Your eyes are so pretty,” Sonny says, “it’s such a shame you need glasses,”

Rafael smiles, “You think?”

“Absolutely,” Sonny says, giving Rafael a small peck.

They stay in silence for a bit.

“You know,” Rafael finally says, holding Sonny’s hand, “last night… it was the best night of my life,”

Sonny chuckles, “C’mon,”

“I’m serious,” Rafael says, Sonny looks at him expectantly, “I haven’t had the best life… and being with you– I don’t know, it just… feels good,”

“I get what you mean,” Sonny says, “it’s nice,”

“It’s fantastic, Sonny,” Rafael corrects, Sonny smiles, showing his big dimples.

“Hm,” his face turns serious, “I was thinking… how my parents would react to me dating a guy,”

Rafael tilts his head, remembering Sonny swore on his mother’s grave, “You want to tell your father?”

“Uh, he’s dead,” Sonny says, Rafael squeezes his hand, “they both are… I just,” he sighs, “I was just thinking how they wouldn’t accept this,” he snorts, “they were so happy when I married Petra,”

“Yeah,” Rafael says, “I get the feeling,”

Sonny stares at him, “They don’t accept you either?”

“I don’t know,” Rafael says, “I haven’t talked to them in decades,”

Sonny looks at Rafael, “You haven’t?”

“My father,” Rafael says, “he was awful, abusive, manipulative… I ran away from all that, and I can’t go back,” he scratches his beard, “I haven’t looked back since I left Barcelona,”

Sonny nods, “Are we the same?”

Rafael looks into his eyes, “Yeah, he hit me,” he sees tears forming in Sonny’s eyes, _we are the same,_ he licks his lips, “let’s run away,” he blurts out.

Sonny is visibly taken aback from this, he wipes away tears “What?”

“I mean… God,” Rafael reaches for his glasses and puts them on, “when this is all over, when the heist is resolved… We should leave, start over,” Rafael rubs circles on Sonny’s palm, “I think Spain is dreadful, for both of us,”

Sonny sighs, “I wouldn’t mind returning to Italy,” he considers, “I don’t think there’s anything left for me in Spain, honestly,”

“Then let’s go… leave to some small island in Italy, Procida, Sicily… you choose,” 

Sonny bites down a smile, “I mean... we’d have to take Alessa”

“Of course,”

Sonny draws his eyebrows together, “You’d cross frontiers with a single father and his daughter?”

“I would go to the end of the world with you, Sonny,”

Sonny chokes back a sob, “God,” he nods, “I’m in, let’s do it,”

Rafael kisses him tenderly, “Solve the heist,” he kisses him again, “I’ll wait for you,”

–—————

“Okay people!” Sonny storms into the tent, “Let’s wrap this up! We can solve this by tomorrow noon”

“You seem cheerier,” Rita says, “let me guess, you finally got laid?” Sonny smiles, “Oh my God, with Rafael?” Sonny raises his eyebrows, Rita shakes her head, smiling. Sonny shrugs and walks away, a swing to his hips Rita makes note to make fun of later.

“First priority is figuring out who El Fiscal is,” Sonny says to the whole tent, “after that, it’ll all be easy,”

He sits down, preparing to hear from El Fiscal for hopefully the last time.

–—————

“Paris, mi vida,” Rafael says into the receiver.

“Fiscal,” she smiles, “you sound extra cheery,”

“I am, y’know… we need to lift up the morale over there,” he rubs his beard thoughtfully, “let’s release some people,”

“You sure?” Liv asks.

“Positive,” he hangs up, “let me just fix it with the inspector,”

“Got it,” Paris says, and she hangs up.

Rafael dials the inspector’s number, he picks up immediately.

“Fiscal,” he says.

“It’s always a pleasure hearing your voice, Dominick,” Rafael smiles, “I have a request,”

“Yes?”

“I’m freeing up some hostages, I want press inside,”

Sonny scoffs, “No way,”

“Remember how hated you were last time you didn’t want to free up hostages? It’s not a good look, inspector,”

Sonny bites his bottom lip, “Okay, sure,” he says, “will you do the talking?”

Rafael smirks, “I might,” he hangs up.

–—————

“So, press is gonna actually _enter_?” Manila asks, throwing away his food container.

“Yeah, and one of us has to talk,” Paris says.

“Who will it be?” Atlanta asks.

“Certainly not you,” Athens replies, “you’re unbearable,” Atlanta throws daggers at him.

“I could do it,” Prague says.

“You’re an ex–cop,” Havana says, “they’d recognize you,”

“They could recognize any of us,” Athens says, “not like any one of us doesn’t have a record,”

“I wiped those off,” Manila offers.

“Yeah but,” Atlanta offers, “we could still be recognized by anyone who’s ever met us,”

“I’ll do it,” Paris says, they all look at her, she shrugs, “I have nothing to lose,”

Havana nods, “You’re our leader here, it makes sense,”

“I agree,” Manila says.

“Yeah,” Atlanta concurs.

“I don’t kn–,” Prague says.

“Well, it’s decided,” Athens interrupts, “You’re great Paris, you’ll do amazing,”

Paris smiles. 

She won’t let down Rafael.

–—————

“Hey,” Gerardo says, walking in to Mike.

“Hm,” Mike says, not turning to look at him.

Gerardo inches closer to the glock he left on the desk, “Don’t you think we should talk?”

“Nah,” Mike shakes his head, “Not really,”

Gerardo quickly pockets Mike’s gun, leaving a fake one Cecilia gave to him.

“I get it,” he nods, “I’m sorry,”

“Whatever,” Mike says, grabbing the gun, still not looking at Gerardo. Exiting the room before Gerardo does.

Gerardo holds on to the gun. Feeling awful about the entire thing.

–—————

“Hello,” Liv takes off her mask as the cameraman and reporter walk in, “I’m Paris, but please, call me Olivia,” the reporter and cameraman shake her hand, “shall we begin?”

Once the camera is on, the reporter begins, “Miss Olivia… I think all of spain has the same question… Why are you freeing up hostages?”

“Because we’ve lost, my dear,” Olivia says, shaking her head, “it’s time to face our defeat, and this is the first step of many,”

The reporter draws her eyebrows together, “You’re surrendering?”

“In a way, we are,” she says, “so much of our plan has failed, some rules have been broken, our leader...” she brushes it off, “it’s not okay,”

The reporter nods, “Anything you want to say to Spaniards everywhere?”

“Of course,” Liv turns to look straight into the camera, “I’m a robber, but think of the reason why,” she starts tearing up, to sell the entire lie, “I was brought up in a system that favors no one, a low-class, daughter of rape,” the reporter gasps, “in some cases, a person is only as good as their circumstances allow them to be,” she shrugs, “thanks for having me,” she says to the reporter. And with that. They cut.

–—————

“You didn’t have to open up on national television,” Rafael says during their next phone call.

“I had to put some realness out there, if I was gonna sell the lie,” she says, “it’s not big deal, my mother is dead,”

“I know, but it’s still something rough… I’m proud of you,” he says.

“Thank you,” she says and hangs up.

She thinks of how this whole thing will end; and decides that if it comes down to one of her own, or herself. She chooses them.

She’s always been the self sacrificing type, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: @rafaelbarbae
> 
> Comment and kudos!!!


	17. Diecisiete

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings

“...most recent national polls reveal the public’s general liking of the Mint Robbe–” Sonny turns off the TV before the reporter can finish the sentence. He knew they were going to grab some sympathy points with the interview. But he just couldn’t afford to deny yet another hostage release. He sighs and turns to Rita.

“Do you think we’ve lost?”

“The heist is still on,” she says while she types away in her computer. Sonny wonders if she is just pretending to work while actually writing on her lifestyle blog. Wouldn’t be the first time, and he doesn’t blame her. This entire investigation is leading nowhere. Dead end after dead end. 

“I mean,” Sonny straightens himself up, catching Rita’s attention. She closes her laptop, “at the end of this whole thing– no matter the outcome–, on what side will the Spanish people be?”

Rita considers his question, “You want the real answer?” Sonny nods, “theirs, because they’re not cops,” she opens her laptop again, “they’re just regular people. Paris said it herself.”

–—————

Mike dreads the times where he’s on hostage duty. They’re tired and grumpy, and he has to constantly push them around. 

For once, he’s only carrying his glock, feeling his shoulders strain from the heavy assault rifle he’s usually carrying. Ever since starting this heist, he hasn’t had the chance to do any exercise at all, and he feels some withdrawal from it. 

So when the hostage he identifies by the name of Jesús pulls a gun on him, the only thing he can do is laugh until tears are coming out of his eyes. 

“That’s a toy,” he says, “this,” he wipes out his glock, “is the real deal,”

Jesús raises his eyebrows, “Is it?”

“Look,” Mike says, a cocky smile on his lips, “I’m very tired, so just return to… whatever it is you do, and get off my dick, okay?”

Jesús snarls, so Mike puffs out a breath, “Alright then,” he tries shooting to his side, but no bullets come out. He pulls the trigger, once, twice, three times. Nothing.

Jesús tilts his head, “You were saying?”

Mike tosses the fake gun to the side, then turns to see Gerardo intently. Jesús presses the gun into his abdomen. Mike raises his hands. 

“Don’t… hurt him,” Gerardo pleas.

Jesús turns to look at him, “Why’d you care?” he asks, then turns back to Mike, “Oh, this is so much fun,” 

“Athens!” Atlanta yells, “They have Athens!” she warns the others. Soon enough, they all gather around to watch the scene.

“Gerardo,” Jesús says, “open the doors,”

Gerardo looks over to Mike, “I’m sorry,” he says, and he presses the button.

Yet nothing happens. He presses it again and again, but it’s useless. 

“They blocked the exit,” Cecilia announces.

“Fuck!” Jesús says, pistol wiping Mike.

“No!” William says.

“I said don’t hurt him!” Gerardo yells as he hits Jesús over with a wood board.

Everyone stays silent. 

Snapping out of the confusion, Havana runs to grab the stolen gun. 

“What the…” Cecilia whispers.

“Wh…” Gerardo drops the wooden board, staring at his former boss in disbelief. He looks from side to side, to all the robbers. 

“Are you one of us now?” Atlanta asks, smirking. 

Gerardo widens his eyes, _what the fuck had just happened?_

–—————

Sonny sits down in his usual booth at the cafe. He gets his phone out and dials Rafael’s number. He picks up in the third ring. Sonny can’t help but frown. 

“Sonny,” Rafael greets, and the inspector can tell he has a huge smile on his face.

“Rafael, uh, do you wanna have a drink? I’m at the cafe,” 

“Glad we’re returning there,” Rafael says, “I’m quite fond of that place,”

Sonny smiles, “Yeah, me too,”

“On my way,” he hangs up. 

Sonny gets ready to order, when the cafe owner approaches him, carrying an envelope. 

“What is this?” he says upon receiving them.

“Mr. Barba left them here for you,” the woman shrugs, “for whenever you came back here,” Sonny furrows his brow, “whatever that means,” 

“Thank you,” Sonny says, cueing her leaving. He opens the envelope and finds several postcards inside. Sicily, Ponza, Capri, Vulcano… All Italian islands, he smiles, remembering his talk earlier that day with Rafael.

Rafael enters the cafe just then, approaching Sonny and kissing his lips, not caring who’s looking. 

“What are these?” Sonny says, holding up the postcards.

“Choose one,” Rafael says, “I told you we could run away together,” he holds Sonny’s hand.

Sonny blushes, “Oh, I love Italy,” he does a chef’s kiss to Rafael’s amusement, who just rolls his eyes, “the motherland…” he carefully switches between postcards.

He turns to see Rafael looking at him expectantly.

And then it hits him. 

As he’s staring at his green eyes, he remembers something Petra mentioned. Something he hadn’t considered before. 

_Rafael studied law. Rafael was short. Rafael had green eyes._

It feels like all the oxygen left the room, “Can you excuse me?” Sonny says, standing up so quickly, he falls back into his booth, immediately standing up again. Rafael reacts to steady him, but Sonny flinches away and runs off to the bathroom. He locks the door behind him.

 _He studied law. He studied law. Hestudiedlaw. HE STUDIED LAW._

How could he be so blind– for fuck’s sake, he was an inspector.

He holds his head on his hands, feeling hot flashes coming and going.

He grabs on to the sink as he stares into the mirror. His pupils are so expanded there’s no blue left on his eyes.

With shaking hands, he grabs his phone from his jeans and calls Petra.

“Dominick,” she says, “you have some ner–”

“Yeah yeah, all that and more,” he grunts, “what did Rafael say when you arrested him?”

“That he studied law. Wh–”

“Did he use those words?” 

Petra stays quiet for a few seconds, “Yes? If you want to flaunt your lifest–”

He hangs up on her. Pacing from wall to wall. Was he going crazy? He backtracks on all the conversations he ever had with Rafael, and all the conversations he had with el Fiscal. 

There weren’t any similarities he could think of from the top of his head, but they did have the same lexicon.

He falls to the floor. He fell for a criminal mastermind. He opened up to a man who has been lying to his face since the very beginning. He chokes back a sob.

He pulls himself back together and exits the bathroom.

_He studied law._

–—————

When he returns to the booth, Rafael is entertaining a glass of scotch in his hand, a beer bottle in front of Sonny’s seat. He plasters the biggest smile he can muster on his lips. 

“Rafael,” he says, sitting down in front of him.

“I went ahead and ordered your usual,” Rafael says with a cheery voice. Sonny would shoot him right here, right now, if there weren’t so many eyes around them. 

“You’re so sweet,” he says, gulping down some of his beer, “you know, I’m feeling a bit,” he breaths out, “steamy,”

Rafael raises his eyebrows, “You mean?”

Sonny licks his lips, “Yeah,”

“We could head to my house– or yours,” Rafael suggests.

“None of that,” Sonny brushes it off with his hand, “go into the bathroom, I’ll follow,”

Rafael tilts his head, “We don’t even have—”

“I’ll eat your ass out like it was my last meal on Earth,” Sonny says in a whisper, then raises an eyebrow.

Stunned by this comment, Rafael stands up and quietly leaves for the bathroom.

Once inside, he smiles. Their relationship is going steady; Sonny seems much more comfortable with himself. 

As he’s thinking this, he feels the now familiar pressure of the barrel of a gun on the back of his neck. He takes a deep breath. _Sexual game?_

“Turn around,” Sonny says.

Rafael complies. He raises an eyebrow suggestively. Trying to figure if this is when his fantasies become realities. 

The look on Sonny’s face tells him it’s not.

He changes his expression to an apologetic one. He puts on the handcuffs without needing any instruction. _Fuck_

“You’re under arrest for your collaboration on the Royal Mint of Spain Heist,” Sonny’s voice gradually turns into sobs.

“Sonny–” Rafael tries to intervene.

“I wasn’t done,” Sonny says between clenched teeth, his gun shaking on his hands, “and for obstruction of justice,”

“Sonny…” 

“Don’t...” he shoves his gun harder into Rafael’s jaw, “call me that,”

Rafael quiets. Sonny guides him to his car. And they drive away, Rafael on the back of the car. Wondering if Sonny will kill him. 

He’s on his right to do so.

–—————

Gerardo paces nervously from wall to wall, he’s a criminal now, he’s one of them. Why did he do that? There’s no way he’ll be able to return to his usual life once this is done. 

“Welcome to the dark side,” Athens says, a cheeky smile on his lips. Gerardo could punch him for being so sly, if only he wasn’t shaking so damn hard. 

“Fuck,” he says, “coño, joder,”

“Look,” Athens says, standing up from the chair, “once this is over, we’ll have more money than what you could ever dream of,” he holds his shoulders, “you can come with, we’ll go to an island we can’t even pronounce the name of, and just… be free,”

Gerardo stares at him in utter disbelief, “I don’t think I was made for that life,”

“This life chooses you,” Athens replies, “not the other way around,”

Prague enters then. Looks at both men, and sighs.

“What just happened there?” he says with a stern voice, regarding both of them.

“Gerardo saved me,”

“But why?” the older man stares Gerardo down.

“I–” Gerardo starts, he looks over at Athens, who has a tender look on his face “I just really like Athens,”

Prague looks from one man to the other, then sighs. 

“Jesus Christ, you always need to make my life harder than it needs to be,” Prague pinches the bridge of his nose. 

Gerardo stares at them, expecting some sort of confrontation, but Athens just hugs his father; this must be their way of showing they care. 

“You can be Stockholm,” Athens suggests, Gerardo snorts. 

“Yeah, I like that,”

–—————

Sonny shoves Rafael out of the car, still shoving his gun on his sides, knowing it’ll leave bruises. Hating the man he woke up next to this morning. Considering cold blooded murder. 

Who was he anymore?

“Here? Really?” Rafael comments, to which Sonny pistol whips him. 

“Thought it’d help refreshing your memory, returning to the lair in which you planned it,” Sonny says. 

“Sonny—“

“It’s Inspector for you, Fiscal” 

“I never planned for this to happen,”

“Get inside,” Sonny says, pushing him inside the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on now updates happen weekly every wednesday. I’m about to finish writing WHOOP
> 
> twitter: ltchaptertwo


	18. Dieciocho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonny questions Rafael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm so irregular with updates, life gets in the way yknow?
> 
> Police brutality warning

Rafael has to stand on his tiptoes to reach the floor, his hands restrained above his head. He’s sweating from the sheer effort. 

Regardless, he says nothing. 

“I’ll kill you, I swear to God,” Sonny says, a look of pure loathing on his face, “I’ll kill you and bury you where no one will ever fucking find you,” 

Rafael thinks he’ll spit on him, but he just takes his anger out on one of the walls, the drywall breaks under his fist. 

When he turns to look at him again, he has tears on his eyes, “Did you get off on it? On fooling a battered man?” Rafael stares at the ground, “For fuck’s sake, we were planning on going to Italy, fuck,” he wipes the tears off his cheeks with his hand, holding his gun. Rafael cowers at the barrel pointing his way, “you’re sick, Rafael, you’re sick,”

“This wasn’t planned,” Rafael blabbers out, barely comprehensible.

“What?” Sonny says.

“I broke my own rules,” Rafael blurts, “I fell in love,”

That’s when Sonny pistol whips him.

“Stop lying to me,” he says, his voice utterly broken.

“I swear on it,” Sonny hits him again, Rafael, “I love you,” he says, his vision going blurry, “Sonny Carisi, I fell in love with you,” 

“SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Sonny says, pistol whipping him a third time, making him pass out. He starts bawling then.

–—————

“Here” Athens drops a machine in front of a napping Gerardo, jolting him awake. 

He rubs his eyes, “What for?” 

“It’s to create your new passport–”

“I did this for a living, Athens, I know what it’s for, I meant _what_ for?”

“Well,” Athens scratches the back of his head, “you can’t be Gerardo anymore,”

“Sure, I’m Stockholm,” he says, then it hits him, “oh, dear Lord, seriously?”

Athens nods, “Yeah,” 

Gerardo sighs, “Jesus fuck…” he rubs his entire face, “Okay, okay. What’s my new name?”

Athens inspects him for a moment, “Your eyes are gray,” 

Gerardo stares at him as if he’s gone crazy, “What?”

“Your last name… Gris,” he thinks for a moment, “your first name… Rodrigo,”

“Why?”

“It fits you,” Athens says tenderly. Gerardo smiles, then the door opens. 

Prague tilts his head as he sees the scene unraveling before him, he sighs and “You know he was the one who stole your gun, right?”

Athens turns to look at Gerardo, then to his father, “What?”

“Son.” Prague sighs.

“Okay. Fine.” Athens says, throwing his hands in the air. 

Gerardo freezes up. Nearly sure Athens will shoot him. 

“We’re villains.” Athens says, “we betray, and I choose to forgive.”

Gerardo gives a deep sigh of relief just as Prague wants to protest.

But with the way his son looks at this man, he can’t be mad.

–—————

Rafael wakes up in a daze, his legs hurting like hell, still hanging by his wrists. He savors the iron taste on his mouth. The room is significantly darker, and he can’t see Sonny anywhere. 

He resolves he might as well deal with the fact he’ll die in here. Sonny himself said it; he’ll kill him. He’ll die by the hands of the man he loves. 

He can make peace with that. 

After what feels like forever of staring at nothing, Sonny comes back carrying a machine. 

“Nobody fucking lies to me,” he says, still shaking with rage. He feels the rage will never stop. 

Rafael wants to ask what the machine is, but Sonny is so angry, he doesn’t wanna risk getting pistol whipped again. 

After Sonny finishes setting up the mysterious machine, he unties Rafael, nearly spitting on his face. 

“Wh–” Rafael is interrupted by Sonny pointing his gun to his temple.

He tilts his head, Rafael dares look at him. His eyes are all black, no blue to be seen. His hair is missing his usual amount of product, a soft curl falling on his forehead, his pink lips slightly opened. If he wasn’t about to kill him, Rafael would tell him he’s beautiful.

“Have you ever heard about Russian roulette?” Sonny asks, the edges of his mouth nearly forming a wicked smile.

“S–Inspector…” Rafael opens his eyes fully, “You don’t want to do this... “

“Who’d miss you?” Sonny teases the gun’s trigger.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Rafael says, “you were called to end this without violence,”

“Usually, robbers don’t get into my personal life,” Sonny says, pressing the barrel of the gun harder against Rafael’s temple, “I can always make exceptions for my morals.”

Rafael takes several deep breaths, on the verge of panicking. Sonny looks insane. 

“Is that a lie detector?” he points with his eyes, “I’ll take it, I’ll take anything, but please, don’t turn into what you loath,” this seems to shift something in Sonny, because he lowers his gun. 

“Fine,” he puts the lock on his gun, throws a mean look at Rafael and points at a chair, “sit your ass down,”

Rafael complies. Sonny puts different wires on him. Rafael concentrates on calming down; he’s done lying to Sonny. He already knows the worse. 

“First question, your real name,” Sonny says, looking at the machine instead of at Rafael.

“Rafael Barba Díaz,” the lines on the machine confirm.

“No fake name? You suck as a robber,” Rafael shrugs, “Are you the mastermind behind the Royal Mint heist?”

“Well,” Rafael says, “my mother suggested it first, I just tweaked it up,”

“Your mother is in on this?” Sonny is thrown off.

“No, the story I told you… running away from Barcelona… it’s all real.” Rafael says, “I was born in Cuba, we all escaped… I don’t think you wanna hear specifics and I’d rather not share them, at least not now… But we were poor. And my mother had the idea of robbing the Royal Mint– it’s everyone’s money, in a way,” he sighs, “and I went with it, years later,” 

Sonny stares at him, “You came here on a boat?” he asks.

“Yeah, yes,” Rafael would much rather stop talking about this. Thankfully, Sonny seems to get the clue.

He licks his lips, Rafael notices him working on the next question. He takes a deep breath. Sonny looks down to his own lap. 

“Did you sleep with me because I’m the inspector?” he asks. There’s heartbreak on it. 

“No,” Rafael says softly. Sonny stares at the results. He’s telling the truth. 

“Don’t lie,” Sonny says, a tear falling on the paper, “don’t.”

“Sonny,” Rafael says, “look at that— I can’t fake this, I slept with you because I fell for you,” the machine confirms it. 

“No,” Sonny stands up, “fuck, you’re lying, you’re lying…”

“I’m not lying, I love you,” he says. If he was more confident about his luck right now, he’d hold Sonny’s face. 

Sonny grabs the wires and snatches them off. Then he pins Rafael to the wall. 

“I can’t believe a word that comes out your mouth,” 

Rafael then maneuvers himself off Sonny’s grip and holds him in a wrench.

“You should,” Rafael says as Sonny kicks around trying to get away from his grip, “I’m sorry,” 

Sonny wants to protest, but he passes out. 

Rafael leaves him on the floor and exits the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: @LTCHAPTERTWO
> 
> COMMENTS AND KUDOS ENCOURAGED!


	19. Diecinueve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings!

After 20 minutes, Sonny slowly opens his eyes. He still has his gun on his holster. He isn’t restrained in any way. He turns to the window and his car is still there. 

Rafael enters the room again, showing he has Sonny’s car keys. 

“What—“ he takes out his gun, Rafael starts walking backwards, “give them back!”

“Sonny—“ Rafael says, “you’ll have to kill me,” 

They reach Sonny’s car with Sonny pointing his gun at Rafael the entire time, and Rafael expertly walking backwards. He can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. As much as he hates Rafael, he can’t kill him. He’s gonna let him get away. On his car. 

Rafael enters the driver’s seat, “I’m sorry, Sonny,” he turns the ignition and drives away. 

Once he’s out of view, Sonny locks his gun and puts it back on his holster. He pats his pants to call for a vehicle, and then he realizes Rafael must’ve taken that as well. 

He kicks the dirt a few seconds, then begins walking. He’ll ask for rides. Whatever.

–—————

After a lot of hitchhiking, he finally gets to the tent.

Petra is there already. Everyone turns to look at him. 

Immediately, he knows they know. And he curses himself for getting there. 

“Dom,” Petra says, a wicked smile on her lips, ”you look like hell,”

“Been there, done that,” he says with all the venom he can manage. 

“Where’s your sweetheart?”

“You damn we’ll know I don’t know,” he knows. But he’ll be damned if he tells anyone before he can get there himself.

She tilts her head, “Don’t you?” she gets closer to him. He hisses, “You could be charged with a lot of things, hope his lawyer ass told you that…” she runs a finger through his tie, he shivers. 

“I don’t know where he is Petra, he took my car,” he feels a pang of guilt, thinking she can tell he’s lying. 

She throws him a smile, “Stay put,” she winks at him (Sonny hates that.) and walks away. 

He sighs, Rita approaches him, “So,”

He faces her with shame, “So,”

“I told you there was something suspicious,” she shrugs. 

He laughs drily. 

“What are you going to do?”

“Fuck if I know,” he says. He could really, really go for a drink now, “every decision I’ve taken has led to this, I called Petra, and she was able to work out who Rafael was,” he shrugs, “Hell, they think I’ve been conspiring with him, Rita,” he sighs, “I learned who he was earlier today Rita, I swear.”

“I believe you,” she says, “but I doubt they will,” 

Sonny nods. He tries to exit the tent, but the Colonel stops him, “Always nice to see you,” Sonny says, a fake smile plastered on his face, the colonel says nothing, “am I under arrest?” the colonel juts his chin up, “No? Then get out of the way.” he steps to the side to go through the door.

“You’re being investigated,” the colonel says without turning to see Sonny. The inspector turns on his heels, “hand over your badge and gun,” Sonny does so without arguing, handing them a bit too aggressively.

“You’ll find nothing,” Sonny says, walking off.

“Let’s hope for that,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm so bad at updating grrr i've been super unmotivated but i really love this story and I know you do too. I promise the next two chapters will be up by October 15 <3
> 
> As of today, I've been working on this AU for 6 months. Wow. 
> 
> Twitter: @LTCHAPTERTWO


	20. Veinte

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... this is why i wrote this fic

As soon as he gets home, Sonny enters his home office. He needs a plan; he takes out his other gun from the vault. He’ll get to Rafael. He’ll make him pay for what he’s done.

But he froze last time he tried to do this. Rafael has some kind of spell on him; he wouldn’t… he couldn’t be able to kill him; even if he said he could. His best choice is to hand him directly to the authorities. 

He calls Rita. He always thinks better when she’s around. 

“Rita,” he says.

“Oh the boy of the hour!” she says, as if he hadn’t just seen her.

“Can you come over?”

“Amidst all this chaos? Nothing would make me happier,” she hangs up.

–—————

Rita gets to his house carrying a Starbucks cup with a straw.

“Rita, thank God,” he says.

“What do you want?” she says. So much to love about her; she’s always straight forward.

“I have to prove I’m innocent,” 

Rita takes off her coat– she’d never let herself be wired. She barely likes being a cop. She’d quit at the mere threat of being fired. 

“Are you?” she asks, sitting down and crossing her legs. 

He stays quiet, “I hope so,” he thinks back to all the information he shared with him, he feels like hurting himself. He’s angry, betrayed… 

“Now that you have your robber lover, tell him to introduce me to Paris,” Rita sips from her straw, “she’s hot”

“He’s not my anything,” Sonny says between clenched teeth.

Rita stares at him, and sees he’s hurt, really hurt, she places a hand on his knee, he turns to look at her, “Let’s catch this bastard,” she says.

–—————

“There are no documents issued for Rafael Barba, nor is the family Barba from Cuba in any documents… Are you sure that’s his real name???”

“Yeah,” 

“Should I contact Cuba?” 

“Do we have that jurisdiction?”

They were in the national database, browsing it. But nothing, nothing told them something about Rafael. Sonny was sure he knew more stuff about him than the Spaniard government. 

Fuck, maybe he never registered as a citizen. Which leads to an entirely different moral debate for Sonny. 

“Thank you for the help, Rita,” he says, “but I think that’s it for today.”

“Are you sure?” she says, typing away on his computer.

“I am,” he takes his computer from his hands, closes it, and picks up her empty plastic cup, “get some rest, Rita,” 

She nods, putting her jacket back on.

“Sonny,” she says once she’s by the door, Sonny exits his trance to look at her, “be careful,”

–—————

The tunnel was done.

They could finally run away, go with el Fiscal.

So he walks the tunnel, and he sees his team for what it feels like the first time.

“750 million euros,” Havana announces, close to tears.

Rafael embraces him a tight hug. 

He goes with the rest of the robbers. Each of them hugs him so tight he feels his ribs are about to crack.

When he gets to Athens, there’s another guy behind him, peaking his interest.

“Fiscal…” Athens says when he lets him go, “this is Stockholm,” 

Logically, Rafael should yell at him. Tell him rule one; no personal relationships.

But he was the first to break that rule.

From the moment he laid eyes on Dominick, he fell for him. 

“Welcome to the team,” he tells Stockholm.

–—————

Back in the attic, Rafael turns down all the surveillance equipment.

He thinks of calling Sonny one last time. Wanting to say goodbye. 

Just then, he feels the barrel of a gun on the back of his head.

“You don’t want to kill me, Sonny,” he says confidently.

“What makes you think that?” Sonny says, his grip shaking.

Rafael stands up so the barrel of the gun is placed right on his sternum, “If you’re gonna do it…” he looks deeply into Sonny’s eyes, “Now’s your chance,” 

Sonny stares at him. He focuses on everything he hadn’t noticed before. His freckles, his blond eyebrows… He lowers his gun. He came immediately here after Rita left his house to get Rafael, to show nobody fucks with him. And maybe he’s a coward, maybe this is the worst decision he’s ever taken, but he can’t kill Rafael Barba. 

He opens his mouth to say something, when he feels a hard hit on the back of his neck and falls to the ground.

–—————

When he wakes up, he’s tied in the same way he tied Rafael earlier that day. Only his feet touch the ground. He’s in the same gloomy attic, and he can’t see Rafael.

He breathes heavily. He knew it was wrong to come here without telling anyone. Rita would’ve stopped him. 

He’s an idiot. 

He tries wrangling with the restraints. But it’s hopeless– he’s trapped. He resigns himself. 

He considers the situation he is in; he won’t die, he doesn’t think so. Rafael couldn’t kill him. There have been no casualties inside the Mint. Maybe he has a no kill policy– his own fucking personal Batman, complete with _stolen_ money. 

He could scream. He could yell until his throat was raw. But he knows nobody would come to him. 

As he’s considering what will happen to his daughter without him, what will Bella, or –God forbid – Petra tell her happened; Rafael walks in.

He feels like spitting at him, but his mouth is dry. He doesn’t even want to dignify his presence with words. 

But seeing Rafael… he doesn’t feel hate. He doesn’t even feel remorse. He sees the man who believed in him, who showed him he could love again. 

And he hates himself for it.

Rafael gets in front of Sonny, their height difference making everything seem less serious. But here’s the thing about Rafael: he fills any room he is in. Sonny feels there’s no air left.

“You were the only–” Rafael chokes, “the only crack in my perfect plan.” 

Sonny draws his eyebrows together, “What?”

“Even if this all goes perfectly smooth… I’ll be fucked… Because I will never see you again. Goddamn it. Me, Rafael Barba, in love.”

Sonny scoffs.

Rafael stares at him, “Do you seriously think I wanted to fall for the inspector in charge of the case?” 

“Shut up,” Sonny says, barely audible, unable to look at Rafael.

Rafael touches Sonny’s cheek, Sonny doesn’t react, “Sonny, there’s a very thin line between the good and bad guys,” when Sonny stares into Rafael’s eyes, he sees how tired he is. 

Sonny doesn’t respond further. He hasn’t slept or eaten in a while, and he’s feeling drowsy. 

“We are just a group of losers, Sonny. That’s all we are. Losers who steal, losers that don’t belong here,” Sonny can see how Rafael is the leader. He is everything, “I’m sorry we met under these circumstances, Sonny Carisi, but I don’t regret falling for you,”

Sonny is about to say something, when his phone starts ringing. Rafael grabs it and sees it’s Rita.

“I’ll let you answer, but please…” Sonny understands and nods. 

“Rita,” Sonny says, with Rafael holding his phone, “I’m fine, don’t worry about it,”

“Rita, seriously… Okay bye,”

“I don’t expect you to join us,” Rafael says, putting Sonny’s phone back in his pocket, “but please… Sonny…”

“I’m with you,” Sonny says quietly.

“What?” Rafael says.

“I said I’m with you,” he repeats clearly, now facing him, “God damn, Rafael Barba, I’m with you,” 

Rafael hesitates smiling, but he can’t help it. 

“Get closer,” Sonny says.

“Are you going to bite me?” Rafael asks, an eyebrow raised.

“Come and find out,” 

Rafael gets on his tip toes as Sonny lowers his head as much as his position allows him. They close the distance between them. And they share a passionate, hungry kiss. Rafael pulls Sonny closer by the back of his neck and they stay this way for a few moments.

“You believe me?” Sonny asks, a glimmer on his eyes and his lips pinker than ever.

“I’m with you,” Rafael answers. He reaches to untie Sonny.

“If I never see you again,” Sonny says, “I want to tell you… Thanks. For everything.” Rafael has a puzzled look, but Sonny doesn’t expand further. 

When Rafael lets him go, he just runs off. Gunless and with zero idea of what’s going to happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twitter: LTCHAPTERTWO
> 
> posting the final chapter on friday hopefully! it’s written!!!


	21. Veintiuno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no warnings!

Sonny is sitting on his couch, unable to process all the stuff that has happened in the last few hours. Did he give everything up for a man he didn’t know a week ago? Is this what losing your mind looks like?

There’s a knock on his door, he stands up and answers. The sunset's light reflects on Rita's sunglasses.

She inspects him from head to toe, with her ever cold glaze. “Seriously? You went to him? Alone?” she takes off her glasses. “Sonny Carisi, you have a deathwish,”

“He’d never kill me,” Sonny says, nearly inaudible, “he loves me,”

"Do you hear yourself?" she rolls her eyes. Sonny looks down, ashamed, upon seeing him, Rita asks, “Do you love him?”

Sonny turns to look at her, his eyes are tired, the blow to his head still hurts, and his wrists are sore. He nods ever so slightly.

Rita sighs, “Sonny, you know I care about this job, a lot, but you’ve been my partner since… well, since we were patrol officers. I care more about you, and you’ve been through a lot. You deserve to be happy. If it is with the biggest robber in human history… Then so be it.”

Sonny looks at her impressed. He doesn’t say anything. He turns to look at the wall again

“They wanna transfer me to work with Petra,” she breaks the silence, Sonny stares at her, his eyes wild, “I said no,” she shrugs, “I can’t work with her, I fucking hate her, always have,” Sonny tilts his head, Rita had been a maid of honor in his wedding, “What? I couldn’t tell you that,” he raises his eyebrows, “Okay yes, I should have,” she sighs, “Sonny, for once in your life, follow your heart.”

–—————

**Inside the mint**

“Is everyone ready?” Olivia says through the megaphone, Amanda gives her a short nod, “Go.” 

They open the main entrance, as planned. The hostages run free, and Mike turns off the lights. They start running towards the vault, where Stockholm, his dad, Ruben, and Nick wait for them. They hear the gun shots of the police chasing them. Mike shoots a few times, not intending to hit anyone, just letting them know they’re armed as well. 

When they reach the hallway that’ll lead them into the vault, he throws a smoke bomb. They reach the vault. The police are just around the corner. They all run through the tunel.

Then William presses a button, and just like that. It’s done. Blown up. Gone.

They successfully robbed the Royal Mint of Spain.

–—————

Sonny vehemently walks into the tent. He was called by his superiors, and he couldn’t refuse. After all, he’s being investigated.

“Tell us where they hide,” the colonel says.

Sonny shrugs.

“Carisi, this could cost you a lot,”

“I don’t know where they hide,”

But he knew well enough. 

The colonel slides a paper to Sonny, “You know what this is?”

Sonny creases his eyebrows and skims the document; a request for full custody of Alessa. He feels his head spinning. Alessa. Growing up with Petra.

“N– you…” he tries to get the words out. But he can’t.

“You’ll never see your daughter,” the colonel says, “and if Petra is as bad as you claim she is, then she doesn’t stand much of a chance.” he tilts his head, “You know how common it is for abusive people to move from victim to victim.”

Sonny can feel tears forming. The choice is simple, really.

–—————

The police knock down Rafael’s door, and sure enough, there’s a hole in the ground. It is the place. But the robbers aren’t there.

They missed them. 

When Sonny hears this, nothing shows on his face.

–—————

**One year later**

Sonny watches TV as he eats some take out. Alessa is napping in her room. 

Bella moved out after the heist was over. She really only lived with him for his own sake. He is happier now that he doesn't work for the police anymore. She lives with recently divorced Gina in Italy now. 

They didn’t find anything on him. It all checked out: he didn’t know Rafael and el Fiscal were the same person. He was the victim there. 

The TV talks about the heist, as it’s the anniversary of the beginning. Sonny hears his name being mentioned, there’s not much to be said of what he’s doing now; he’s just giving seminars on domestic violence at different universities. The reporter says as much.

A memory invades his mind, he stands up and reaches one of his drawers, taking out the postcards Rafael gave him. He passes them one by one, they all show beautiful Italian islands. He stares at the Ponza one, then he flips it. As he sees what’s behind it, he gasps.

“I’ll wait for you,” a promise. He bites down a smile. He calls Rita.

–—————

He’s never been on this particular island, and he wonders why Rafael would risk staying in Europe. Was this always his plan? Or did he change it for him? 

He shakes off his thoughts as he looks in the crowds for him. The postcard told him to come here. He holds Alessa close to him.

When he spots Rafael, and he looks back at him, he feels like everything will be okay. Rafael is there. Rafael is real. He's smiling, and he truly did wait for Sonny. They have each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit. This is it. 6 months of working w this AU and its over. Holy shit. Thanks to everyone who read this, waited for updates, commented, left kudos, it meant a lot to me. This fanfic was actually super hard to write given how different it is from canon. Keeping characterizations was so hard but I'm glad it happened!!!!


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